Not, of course, that there was much room for choice in how the plot went. “The Other Boleyn Girl” is based on Philippa Gregory’s hugely popular, 1-million-copies-in-print novel, which in turn is taken from the history of 16th century Tudor England and the reign of King Henry VIII and his second queen, Anne Boleyn.

If that all sounds familiar, it may be because of 1969’s movie on the same subject, “Anne of the Thousand Days,” starring Richard Burton and Genevieve Bujold. The breathless ad line for the first film sets the tone for this one as well: “He was King. She was barely 18. And in their thousand days they played out the most passionate and shocking love story in history!”

What’s different about this version of the tale, however, is its emphasis on Anne’s sister Mary being the first of the two Boleyn women to, as they say, share the king’s bed. How all that happened, and the various melodramatic ways that sisterly rivalry played out, is the bait that lured the film’s prestigious writer, director and stars.

It’s dark-haired Natalie Portman in for Bujold as the flirtatious vamp Anne, given to saying cheeky things such as “Betrothed is not married.” Playing kinder, gentler Mary — a simple, uncomplicated girl unburdened by ambition — is Scarlett Johansson. And Eric Bana exercises his divine right to be a smoldering hunk as the king who came between them, the man who simply has to whisper the word “tonight” to get women lining up for a time share in that royal bed.

Adapting Gregory’s novel is Peter Morgan, Oscar-nominated for writing “The Queen” for Helen Mirren and an earlier, Emmy-winning “Henry VIII” for Ray Winstone and is apparently the go-to guy for royal-intensive scripts. The director is British TV veteran Justin Chadwick, whose adaptation of Charles Dickens’ “Bleak House” was a recent hit.

Initially “The Other Boleyn Girl” is good, genteelly trashy fun. It shows the two sisters as pawns in the family pursuit of wealth and position masterminded by their father (Mark Rylance) and their nasty uncle the Duke of Norfolk (a snarky David Morrissey) in order to catch the eye of a king desperate for a male heir.

Even a currently married monarch, the ladies are carefully instructed, “sometimes seeks comfort elsewhere.” So despite spoilsport grousing by their mother (the always effective Kristin Scott Thomas) about women being “traded like cattle for the advancement and entertainment of men,” that’s exactly what happens.

Subscribe to The China Post and save.  Click hereSharePrintEmail

Write a Comment

Enter your comments - 800 characters max

Receive China Post promos

Respond to this email