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Other Boleyn Girl, The
Columbia Pictures (Sony)


5.8

based on 34 reviews
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based on 29 votes
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MPAA RATING: PG-13 for mature thematic elements, sexual content and some violent images

Starring Natalie Portman, Scarlett Johansson, Eric Bana, Kristin Scott Thomas, Mark Rylance, and David Morrissey

Based on the best-selling novel by Philippa Gregory, The Other Boleyn Girl is an engrossing and sensual tale of intrigue, romance, and betrayal set against the backdrop of a defining moment in history. Two sisters, Anne and Mary Boleyn, are driven by their ambitious father and uncle to advance the family's power and status by courting the affections of the King of England. Leaving behind the simplicity of country life, the girls are thrust into the dangerous and thrilling world of court life. What began as a bid to help their family develops into a ruthless rivalry between Anne and Mary for the love of the king. Initially, Mary wins King Henry's favor and becomes his mistress, bearing him an illegitimate child. But Anne--clever, conniving, and fearless--edges aside both her sister and Henry's wife, Queen Catherine of Aragon, in her relentless pursuit of the king. Despite Mary's genuine feelings for Henry, her sister Anne has her sights set on the ultimate prize: Anne will not stop until she is Queen of England. As the Boleyn girls battle for the love of a king--one driven by ambition, the other by true affection--England is torn apart. Despite the dramatic consequences, the Boleyn girls ultimately find strength and loyalty in each other, remaining forever connected by their bond as sisters. (Columbia)

GENRE(S):	Drama
WRITTEN BY:	Peter Morgan
DIRECTED BY:	Justin Chadwick
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: June 10, 2008 Theatrical: February 29, 2008
RUNNING TIME:	115 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	UK

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold

An absorbing, exciting costume drama that works as a historical romance, a family tragedy and a showcase for its young stars.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

The result is an entertainingly sudsy trip through early 16th century English history.

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

A classy romantic cocktail distinguished by its tart yet breezy bite.

San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle

An enjoyable movie with an entertaining angle on a hard-to-resist period of history.

Christian Science Monitor Peter Rainer

A richly appointed period piece, it features kingly tantrums, mistresses, bodices, roaring fireplaces, incest, and mutton. It also features sharply enunciated, period-perfect dialogue in which nary a contraction can be heard.

LA Weekly Chuck Wilson

Stuck for years playing young women who are the idealized object of male desire (Portman and Johansson)-- flaw-free and, in Johansson's case, barely conscious -- they come alive in The Other Boleyn Girl, as if being bound up in costumer Sandy Powell's exquisite gowns has freed them from the tighter constraints of their own beauty.

Variety Derek Elley

A sexy, good-looking political bodice-ripper with an almost flawless cast at the top of its game.

Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov

Works both as an engagingly sordid meditation on protofeminism and contemporized sisterhood set in a time and a place where either/or were grounds for, at the very least, defenestration.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Tasha Robinson

The film looks terrific, all Vermeer-style light/dark interplay and sleek design. And Portman is fantastic as the tempestuous Anne.

Premiere Andrew Grant

Two-hours of trashy eye-candy that, while fast and loose with the truth, functions as a perfectly adequate divertissement in a time of year when studios tend to unleash their worst.

Chicago Tribune Jessica Reaves

Eric Bana doesn’t have much to do as Henry VIII except play the monarch as an overgrown spoiled brat. He is, however, awfully nice to look at.

Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey

Feels less like an epic drama about power and the power of love than an episode of a Masterpiece Theatre mini-series.

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

It's a terrific showcase for battling Boleyn babes Scarlett Johansson and Natalie Portman.

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

In Portman's dynamic performance you can see strength and vulnerability warring for Anne's soul. In this bedroom view of history, it's that image that sticks.

Empire Will Lawrence

A rather titillating take on a racy historical novel, this is perhaps too ambitious in intent. More time, or more pruning (perhaps they should just have focused on The Boleyn girl), would have produced a richer and more enjoyable film.

The Hollywood Reporter Ray Bennett

Shot in high definition and filmed at many historic locations, the film somehow still lacks the splendor of an epic, and its urgency to get on with the next plot point leaves much unexplained while context goes out the window.

Slate Dana Stevens

For a movie whose story hinges almost entirely on sex, The Other Boleyn Girl is disappointingly demure.

New York Magazine David Edelstein

A brisk feminist melodrama that is, historically speaking, a load of wank. It has the feel of a game of “telephone,” in which information is progressively mangled.

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

If you're indifferent to silly revisions of history and bad acting, you may enjoy The Other Boleyn Girl. I'm not, and I didn't.

Miami Herald Connie Ogle

Think "Cruel Intentions" in period costume, or better yet, Sofia Coppola's "Marie Antoinette," which managed to take its subject matter lightly and seriously at the same time.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Rick Groen

What might have been delicious trash lacks the courage of its trashy convictions, and the result is high-born melodrama with the juice boiled out, so much dry cabbage on fine-china plate.

Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum

It's neither sexy enough to qualify as good trash nor serious enough to pass for history.

New York Daily News Elizabeth Weitzman

Chadwick builds a brisk pace and sweeping scope that initially grab our interest. But this Anne's sole motivations are sex and greed, and the wild rumors that were designed to destroy her are treated here as gospel.

USA Today Claudia Puig

Can't quite figure out what it wants to be. At times it strains to be a stately period drama about 16th-century political intrigue. Then it devolves into soap opera muck and emerges as a rather tame bodice ripper.

Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

Not content to be a mildly diverting royal bodice-ripper, it spirals out of control into the kind of overwrought dramaturgy that's out of its league.

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

This rendering of the turbulent second marriage of England's King Henry VIII proves too heavy-footed for the old movie two-step of setting up a morality tale, then exploiting it for heat and titillation.

Washington Post Desson Thomson

Even by its own standards, the movie becomes increasingly macabre and ludicrous as Anne's machinations get the better of her, and everyone, including the audience, is left feeling shattered, shaken and vaguely unclean for having participated in all this.

The New York Times Manohla Dargis

Forced to compete for kingly favors, the women were soon rivals, a contest that, in its few meagerly entertaining moments, recalls the sisterly love in “What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?”

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

After covering much of its ground at a stylish canter, The Other Boleyn Girl finishes at a plod.

Boston Globe Ty Burr

Not good enough to take seriously and, sadly, not bad enough to be any fun.

New York Post Lou Lumenick

It's pretty hard to make a dull movie about Henry VIII and his complicated love life, but The Other Boleyn Girl, a failed Oscar contender, manages to do just that, with yawns to spare.

Portland Oregonian M. E. Russell

The all-description storytelling leads to other problems, too, the worst being that "Boleyn" suffers from the same affliction as "The Golden Compass," where you're told about interesting stuff happening elsewhere in another movie you'd much rather be watching.

Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek

The most sterile of bodice-rippers, a genteel soap opera in which the sex and intrigue are so muted, so tasteful, that they practically blow off the screen in a scattering of dust.

Film Threat Matthew Sorrento

The falling blade is the only element not missing the mark in this film. I wanted to call for the beheading after Act One, and spare the audience instead.

The average user rating for this movie is 5.8 (out of 10) based on 29 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Ekaterina from Russia gave it a10:
I really liked the film...it's unforgettable and it makes you think - so many time has passed, but actually not so many habits changed.

Billy S. gave it a5:
As The Monarchy Turns, The Days Of Our Royal Lives, The Young and The Priveledged... ...ya see where i'm going here?

Robert K. gave it a10:
Simply an outstanding production, whether or not it is true.

Crystal U gave it a0:
This movie did not portray the book at all!! Mary was already at court serving her Majesty! Anne was still in France! Anne when she was sent away she was sent to HEVER NOT FRANCE! Mary had a daughter first, son second (who in real history is not 100% to be Henrys! The affair was already over!) The King never raped Anne! He waited until the verdict was almost in, they slepted together lovingly then married when she became with child. Mary was not a virgin with her first husband, she had an affair with the french King before she came to serve Queen Katherine. I could go on but that would take more time then I have! The book was great, not 100% historically true but very close, the movie destroyed the book and the author should be ashamed and embarassed to have ok'd a half-written script like this. OH AND THE ACTING.....Watch Tudor's the women who plays Anne is much more the Anne Boleyn we have all come to learn then natalie Portman any day! Oh and Scarlet go fix your teeth you have enough money right All in all I was very sad I was looking forward to see this movie and I was very disappointed. We need to leave our wonderful books alone before they are all butchered.

Chad S. gave it a6:
Mary Boelyn(Scarlett Johansson) is the other Boelyn girl; as in the other Boelyn girl deserves to...not Anne(Natalie Portman). The ornamental "B" that Anne wears stands for her namesake, obviously; or "bitch", because she schemes with belligerence, but on an intertextual level, Anne's alphabetical bling-bling makes reference to the "A" that Hester Prynne is burdened with in Nathaniel Hawthorne's "The Scarlett Letter". In the final scene, when the "B" reappears after its retirement during Anne's reign as queen, we realize that Mary's indiscretion is the greater offense. Anne might be a "whore"(Katherine of Aragon said it; not me), but Mary is Hester Prynne. Don't let Mary's woe-is-me countenance fool you; in her own passive-aggressive manner, she matches her sister blow-for-blow, every step of the way, as both sisters try to bed King "I'm-too-sexy-for-this-court" Henry(Eric Bana plays the randy Tudor like he's Hugh Hefner with a sceptre). Both sisters learn too late, to their misfortune, that the court of England is a man's world. Since "The Other Boelyn Girl" presents a larger-than-life set of circumstances and payoffs, they should've let Johansson have some overheated fun, too, and allowed her to go vis-a-vis with Anne more honestly. I think Mary is coy. Her simple way is a country girl act. Substitute Mary's tears with a smile the last time she sees Anne would've made "The Other Boelyn Girl" a guilty pleasure.

Martin F. gave it a4:
Poor casting, unbearably muted photography and terrible script make for a ploddingly dull time at the movies. Scarlett Johanssen is miscast as Mary a role which fails to allow her a chance at expressing her full range.

Svetty Y. gave it a9:
One of the most interesting movies I've seen this year. Natalie Portman demonstrates her talent in this movie.

Other Boleyn Girl, The Columbia Pictures (Sony)

Other Boleyn Girl, The
Columbia Pictures (Sony)