Product Description

Based on the best-selling novel The Other Boleyn Girl is a captivating tale of intrigue romance and betrayal starring Natalie Portman Scarlett Johansson and Eric Bana. Two sisters Anne (Portman) and Mary (Johansson) are driven by their ambitious family to seduce the king of England (Bana) in order to advance their position in court. What starts as an opportunity for the girls to increase the family fortune becomes a deadly rivalry to capture the heart of a king and stay alive.System Requirements:Running Time: 115 minutesFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA/CLASSICS Rating: PG-13 UPC: 043396214507 Manufacturer No: 21450

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #529 in DVD
• Brand: Sony
• Released on: 2008-06-10
• Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
• Formats: AC-3, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD-Video, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English, Spanish, French
• Dubbed in: French, Spanish
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .20 pounds
• Running time: 115 minutes

Amazon.com
A tale of two sisters competing for the same king, The Other Boleyn Girl uses historical facts as window dressing for this work of fiction that is entertaining, if not wholly believable. Anne Boleyn (Natalie Portman) is the doe-eyed vixen ordered by her power-hungry uncle to bewitch King Henry VIII (Eric Bana). Her shy sister Mary (Scarlett Johansson) has always been in Anne's shadow; Anne is prettier, more accomplished, and desired by many men. So when the King picks Mary--the "other Boleyn girl"--as his mistress, Anne turns on her sister and schemes to become not only the King's consort, but his new queen. With a pair of American actresses in the lead roles and an Aussie portraying their hunky object of desire, the English accents are all over the place in this period piece with a modern feel. Though the Boleyn girls' mother points out that her "daughters are being traded like cattle for the advancement of men," it is Anne who ultimately throws her slight weight around to bully Henry into doing her bidding. When he begs her to give herself to him, Anne--wearing a Carrie Bradshaw-esque "B" pendant on her neck--counters, "Make me your Queen." Is the audience really supposed to believe that Henry the VIII--the most powerful man in the land--would divorce Catherine of Aragon, separate from the Catholic church, and put England in upheaval simply because Anne refused to sleep with him until he jumped through all her hoops? "I have torn this country apart for you," he hisses at her before finally getting his way. Based on Philippa Gregory's bestselling novel of the same name, The Other Boleyn Girl features an attractive cast and a familiar plot with some icky twists. Kieran McGuigan's cinematography is breathtaking and is as crucial to setting the film's tone as the dialogue. Actually, it fares better: Lines such as "Well? Did he have you?!" sound almost comical. But the sweeping shots of Henry's kingdom and the carefully framed close-ups of Portman and Johansson are breathtaking in their beauty and say what words simply cannot. --Jae-Ha Kim

Get to Know the Cast of The Other Boleyn Girl
(click on images to see more films from each actor)

Natalie Portman (Anne Boleyn)

Scarlett Johansson (Mary Boleyn)

Eric Bana (Henry Tudor)	Jim Sturgess (George Boleyn)	Kristin Scott Thomas (Lady Elizabeth Boleyn)

Beyond The Other Boleyn Girl

Paperback Book

On Blu-ray

The Soundtrack

Stills from The Other Boleyn Girl (click for larger image)

Customer Reviews

okay to watch once
I watched this with very little expectation it would be good. It is a tragedy how Henry's wives were treated and didn't expect much. I was pleasantly surprised that I found it mostly watchable.

This is mostly about Mary, Anne's pretty but sweet sister and how she is forced into adultery with the king to bail out her awful family. Anne resents her for it and takes revenge in various nasty ways. Eventually the two girls patch their differences and we all know what happens next.

I found this to be a watchable film. The costumes were pretty, and the acting fairly boilerplate. I probably wouldn't watch it again, but it was worth a look

2 stars.

Book are still better than the movies
I was extremely excited after reading Gregory's book that they were going to be making a movie. I was rather hopeful that they didnt butcher it. Honestly they didnt do such a horrible job.
The costumes were amazing and very well done. I felt the cast was well-picked although no one seems to get King Henry right. This was my problem with the TV series "The Tudors". The movie was almosat historically correct and well realistically the script wasnt that bad. It could've been better,
I wasnt disappointed with the movie. I still stick to my opinion that books are always better than movies.

For those of you who have read the book...
If you've read the novel this movie is based upon ('The Other Boleyn Girl,' by Phillipa Gregory), you'll probably be a bit disappointed in the movie. Natalie Portman does give a good performance as Anne Boleyn, but Scarlett Johansson is less than stellar as Anne's sister, Mary. The script focuses too heavily on Anne and her relationship with Henry VIII, ignoring the other characters that made the book so interesting: the Duke of Norfolk, Anne and Mary's brother George and the role he played in Anne's downfall are largely ignored.

Those of you who are familiar with Henry VIII are likely to be left scratching their heads over the choice of Eric Bana in the role of Henry. While I'm sure Mr. Bana is a fine actor, he bears no physical resemblance to Henry at all. Furthermore, the script writers left his quite one dimensional. In their efforts to showcase the hold Anne Boleyn had over Henry, he's left appearing like a dog on a leash, rather than besotted.

Great time periods are compressed as if events that, in reality, occurred over years and years appear to have happened in just days. This leaves the film with a disjointed feeling.

The role of Henry Percy, Anne's first husband, provides unintentional comic relief. While he appears in several scenes (and is quite important in Anne Boleyn's life story), the poor character has no lines whatsoever and the actor is left resorting to over-dramatic facial expressions. Very funny to watch.

The one bright star in the production is the performance of Ana Torrent as Katherine of Aragon, Henry's first wife. Not only are her physical attributes perfect for the role, but her performance is utterly believable and left me wishing her role had been larger.

If you're unfamiliar with the original novel or Anne Boleyn's story, you may very well enjoy this film. Do not, however, believe this film is in any way historically accurate. If you loved the novel and are a history buff, you might want to skip this one altogether and go rent a copy of "The Lion in Winter" for a great retelling of Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine....much more accurate and a good history lesson, too.