Kat with a K

Movie: The Other Boleyn Girl

A friend and I saw The Other Boleyn Girl last night. Quick take: It's awful. Don't bother.

Some background: I read the book on which the movie was based a few years ago, and thought it was okay, but not great. And in general, I've read a fair amount about the Tudors, but I'm no expert.

So, the movie: it was faithful neither to the novel nor to history. Now, I'm okay with movies or books that take liberties with historical fact, as long as there is clear narrative reason for doing so. In this case, there wasn't. At all. It made the story disjointed and boring. Of all the stories to make boring! There's no excuse for that. The actors did a reasonably good job with what they were given, but the whole thing just felt rushed and half-hearted. There was a lot of telling rather than showing, especially of the various interpersonal relationships. It made the whole thing pretty unbelievable. And really, they just changed EVERYTHING, often for no apparent reason.

There were a few good points: The clothes and scenery were gorgeous. I liked Eric Bana as Henry. And in a few scenes, the banter between Henry and Anne seemed spot-on. But these few things didn't make up for the awfulness of the rest.