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Other Boleyn Girl, The
Columbia Pictures (Sony)


6.0

based on 34 reviews
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based on 32 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 6.0 (out of 10) based on 32 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Cristina G gave it an8:
Not sure why the critics slammed it. It was definitely better than the reviews made it out to be.

Ma L gave it a9:
I really enjoyed this fresh take on the Henry VIII story--instead of another retelling of the entire historical event,which already has been done so many times, this zooms in and focuses on some of the lesser known individuals. It shows the price of greed and ambition so great that all else, family loyalty, love, marriage vows, even faith, can be easily changed or traded. It was daring in that it used some controversial theories (like the book's author, apparently) by historians, and not just the textbook version in grade schools; it is actually not all just artistic license, although there is some of that as in most films based on factual events. Glad to see something original and not just another stodgy re-telling of the same old story, without covering new ground!

Ashley S gave it a0:
I hated the movie and adored the book.....I cant believe that Phillipa allowed her book to be butchered!!!! What a beautiful piece of work turned into crap.

Brandy gave it a2:
As mentioned before this movie fails to follow the book. If I had not read the book before watching the movie I wouldn't have had any idea what was going on. It was all over the place. The casting was terrible, they didn't depict the characters in the book at all. I recommend reading the book, because the movie will just give a bad perception of the whole Boleyn story.

Jay H gave it a6:
Too much melodrama and not enough on the interesting aspects of the characters. It sure is pretty with great sets and costumes, but it bored me. Natalie Portman is always worth watching and the production is magnificent.

kyra d gave it a10:
Amazing movie! Great cast, powerful music and an overall thrill to watch!

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.

Other Boleyn Girl, The Columbia Pictures (Sony)

Other Boleyn Girl, The
Columbia Pictures (Sony)