Movie Review: The Other Boleyn Girl

Despicable people doing contemptible things have never equaled solid entertainment. The Other Boleyn Girl is not without its highlights - those being negligible and spread out amongst poorly-paced, drawn-out bits of heavily censored romance. Natalie Portman delivers a worthwhile performance as the ill-fated Anne Boleyn, but the rest of the too-beautiful cast doesn't ever seem to authentically fit in to their lavish period piece costumes. Undoubtedly after viewing The Other Boleyn Girl, the audience will probably only want to research what truly happened.

When the Queen of England, Katherine of Eragon (Ana Torrent) is unable to produce a male heir for impatient King Henry Tudor (Eric Bana), he becomes besotted by Anne Boleyn (Natalie Portman), who is intentionally placed before him to allow her weak father Thomas and her conniving uncle, the Duke of Norfolk, to remain in good favor with royalty.

During the King's visit, Anne's competitive personality finds Henry becoming injured, and being taken care of by her sister, Mary Boleyn (Scarlett Johansson). The greedy King soon falls for the dewy-eyed sister, and she is whisked back to the court for his pleasure. Not long after, Mary is pregnant, and Anne Boleyn secretly gets married to nobleman Henry Percy. Anne is banished when the Duke of Norfolk discovers her spontaneous and unplanned marriage, but within a mere two months is brought back to keep the King occupied while Mary is bedridden.

Anne soon finds herself infatuated with potential power and control over the King, and manages to have Mary sent back to the countryside and Katherine of Aragon banished for false infidelities. Henry eventually breaks away from the Catholic Church when he arranges an annulment with his wife and marries Anne. Despite her promises, she is unable to produce a male heir for Henry, and he begins to regret his decisions over Katherine and his country, which leads to...well, the rest as they say, is history.