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: #216 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, French, Spanish
• 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

Entertaining soap opera
The Other Boleyn Girl

This movie is about men who barter with women. Two sisters, close in age, are born to the Boleyn family. The mother, Elizabeth Howard, married Thomas Boleyn against her family's wishes, as she married "down" in society, but she was happy because she married for love. Unfortunately, her conniving brother and fame-seeking husband barter off her daughters for a place in the royal family.

The movie starts off with Mary's (Scarlett Johansson) wedding to the merchant's son. She could have married higher on the social scale, but like her mother, she married for love. Shortly after her marriage, her older sister Ann (Natalie Portman) is asked by both her father and uncle to "entertain" the king when he comes to visit. King Henry VIII (Eric Bana) and his wife have been unable to have a son (they're born stillborn). Ann's conniving father tells her it is important for her to impress the king on the stag hunt, so when the stag goes down a deep ravine, Ann is the only rider who follows (without getting injured, I might add). But the King, not to be outdone, follows and falls off his horse. After this embarrassment (of his own fault), the king is no longer interested in Ann. In fact, she proves to be an embarrassment to him, so Thomas Boleyn sends in his other daughter, Mary, to attend to the king's injuries. What follows are a series of disturbing acts by the men in this story, as well as the now extremely jealous Ann. Mary's husband offers her to the king in a moment of horrible betrayal and Mary's world suddenly crumbles as she's handed off like a piece of furniture. The only person on her side is her mother, who rages at the father who bartered off both daughters like cattle.

After Mary's first night with the king, she is interrogated by her uncle and father before her mother, the queen, and half a dozen people in the room. Shortly thereafter, Ann runs off and marries a noble, and the marriage is quickly "erased" while Ann is banished to the countryside. The way the uncle and father manipulate these two is terrible. The king is probably his most tender when he is with Mary and since her husband is so inadequate in the bedroom, it's easy to see how she enjoys the king's company. Ann, on the other hand, becomes more and more spiteful, starting a series of events that will eventually destroy her (and you won't be sympathetic either). Perhaps the most amusing point in this movie is when the girls' brother is forced to marry a woman he hates. Laughable, because he eagerly helped his father and uncle barter off his sisters.

Ann is finally brought back into the picture when Mary becomes pregnant with the king's child and is bedridden. Her task is to keep Mary foremost in the King's mind at all times (so he doesn't bed someone else), but that's about the furthest thing from Ann's mind. No surprise there. But don't worry, Ann gets exactly what she deserves (just like the real Ann).

The Other Boylen Girl
This was really a disappointment. If I had not read the book, I'd have been totally confused, because so much was left out or just plain incorrect. The story jumped around-no continuity at all.

Great! But don't read the book first!
I guess because I did not read the book first, I loved this movie.

I can see that many people rated their dissappointment based on reading the novel and comparing the movie. I find that unfair.

Although I know how they feel. It's impossible to reduce the breadth of a novel within the time restrictions of a feature film.