Very Solid Film!!!
Added 11/14/2009
I really enjoyed this movie. As is the case with most movies these days, some of the content was somewhat improbable in the "real world". However, to sum it up, I would describe the movie as "entertainment that makes you think"!
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bad movie
Added 7/20/2009
My biggest problem with this movie involves the script, which has too many characters who appear and disappear, and is far too long.
Secondly, the characters do not relate to one another in any meaningful way.
Jude Law and his wife are not connected. Jude Law and the boy's mother are equally unconnected. Jude Law, who appears to be a successful architect, never works, never has emotions, and is as drab as his boring wardrobe.
Only the minor characters actually show some humanity and distinction but they are too few and far between in a dismal movie.
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Unbelievable Coupling
Added 8/13/2008
My and and I just didn't buy Jude Law and Robin Wright-Penn as a couple. Nor the supposed attraction and sexual tension between Law and Binoche. Of the three I think Wright-Penn stands out the most, followed by the girl who plays her daughter Bea. The other interesting part was the antics of the young man playing the agile monkey boy. I wouldn't watch this film again.
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Didn't do it for me
Added 12/29/2007
It takes the first 45 minutes before some things starts to happen and then still it feels very stiffled. What came to mind watching this was the book "Unholy Hunger", as it displays very well the feeding happening in human relating on planet Earth. Everyone is feeding on somebody else; sometimes it is mutual feeding and at other times it is distinctly predatorial. Not a pretty sight.
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Great idea....poor execution
Added 12/28/2007
Just because it's Anthony Minghella does not mean we forget what good film-making is all about.
The positives: I loved the shots of King's Cross, and I fondly remember the times I spent their in my student days (and all-nighters!) at The Scala Cinema. I liked the way the regeneration of this area was woven into the plot as a contrast to the crumbling relationship of Will and Liv. Binoche is great, and I loved the cameo by Juliet Stevenson who seemed very believable and low-key. The Kafka joke was a great line.
The negatives: Jude law was poor; he needs acting lessons to drag out of him what little acting talent he has. OK, he's a fashionable name but his acting is poor and he was simply not believable in this role. I know a fashionable name gets you investors which you need to make this kind of film, but it ultimately undermines the whole film if they seriously under-perform. There was no real depth. The plot held together shakily and was so full of cliches my groaning woke the neighbours: the tart with a heart; Serbian refugees as organized criminals; ice-cold (American) Swedish hottie etc etc.
The ending was just plain sad and unconvincing.
Shame really, the idea was great.
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"16th Century Soap Opera At Its Best!"
Added 11/23/2009
"The Other Bolyn Girl" was released to theatres on February 29th, 2008 and became an immediate hit grossing over $75,000,000 at the boxoffice. These were huge numbers considering the movie only cost $35,000,000 to produce. Perhaps it was the fact that television viewers, at the time, were enthralled by Showtime's "The Tudors" and movie-going audiences were inclined to watch a historical piece on King Henry VIII that made this a hit, but "The Other Bolyn Girl" could never have failed; it had all the ingredients of a hit film: stunning photography, a wonderful story that was known to its audience, and enthralling performances by its three leads. "The Other Bolyn Girl" tells the story of 16th-century aristocrats Mary and Anne, sisters, fighting over King Henry VIII. Mary would ultimately be only Henry's mistress(one of many) and Anne would become his second wife(also one of many). Both sisters were trying to better themselves and their family by getting involved with the Monarch, but both failed to realize the King was only in love with two things; his country and his unfulfilled sexual apetite. The sisters are played by Natalie Portman (Anne) and Scarlett Johansson (Mary), but it is Eric Bana, who plays King Henry, that is mesmerizing. He displays many emotions as the King of England; everything from raw sexuality (Eric is breathtaking to look at with his beard) to hatred, passion, love, desire, and vengefulness. The production values of this historical drama are first-rate with beautiful costumes and cinematography. The DVD comes with deleted and extended scenes, featurettes on the film and its historcial figures, and more. WNBC says of the film that it's , "a wonderful, dramatic and powerful saga of the dangers of absolute power. The cast is impeccable". If you enjoy "The Other Bolyn Girl" you will love TV's "The Tudors". That series' first two seasons are available on DVD.
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Hated this movie
Added 11/17/2009
This movie played with history and the sisters motivations for doing what they did were muddy. While some of the actors were good (Scarlett Johanssen, Kristin Scott Thomas), the 2 main characters were not very believable. Hated Eric Bana as Henry VIII. He had no fire or passion and wasn't arrogant enough. And I just could not believe Natalie Portman as Anne Boleyn. On the whole, skip it and watch The Tudors. Much better and in more depth rendition of same topic. Also, you could go back in time and rent/buy A Man For All Seasons if you really want to see Henry VIII (Peter O'Toole) and Thomas More (Paul Scofield) go at it.
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Not so Competent Filmmaking
Added 11/11/2009
"The Other Boleyn Girl" tells the rise and fall of Anne Boleyn, the woman who manipulated Henry the Eighth into separating from the Vatican and who gave birth to Elizabeth, Britain's greatest monarch.
When Catherine of Aragon is unable to produce a male heir for the king (Eric Bana) the Boleyn family plays political intrigue, assigning Anne (Natalie Portman) to be Henry the Eighth's mistress. But Henry the Eighth prefers the younger sister Mary (Scarlett Johansson), and beds her. Dejected and angry Anne secretly marries the young lord Henry Percy, an impetuous act that is rewarded with her exile in France where she completes her education in the ways of man. Upon her return Anne seduces Henry the Eighth, manipulates him into rejecting her younger sister, the queen, and the Vatican. Branded as a witch by the English public Anne gives birth to Elizabeth, and then loses a child in a miscarriage. Fearing for her life and clearly growing insane Anne tries to get her brother George to impregnate her, and the king hears about this and beheads both.
When we first learn that Natalie Portman is to play the wildly ambitious seductress Anne and Scarlett Johansson her wide-eyed innocent sister we're forced to think that there's been a terrible mix-up in casting. But Natalie Portman is the anchor of the film, holding together a flimsy and sometimes incoherent script and yet another half-hearted performance by Scarlett Johansson.
Natalie Portman will be remembered as the greatest star of her generation -- the Audrey Hepburn of our times. She lacks the stunning overwhelming beauty of Audrey Hepburn but she is far more talented and versatile. She was terrible in the Star Wars trilogy but so was everyone else, and since then she has given nothing but competent performances. In "The Other Boleyn Girl" her character isn't all that believable and developed, her supposed transformation halfway through the movie isn't really noticeable, and it's hard to figure out why Henry the Eighth becomes so infatuated with her -- and yet despite all these stark flaws in the script and direction Natalie Portman's still compelling to watch: she's just stunningly beautiful draped in vermillion, and she makes the usually sexy Scarlett Johansson look dull and ditzy.
Ironically Portman's brilliant performance only hurts the film. The film is designed to be a tragedy, centering around a family that suddenly rises and then suddenly falls because of their overwhelming thirst for power. It is this blind famly ambition that would create Anne Boleyn, a woman who's either evil or insane and who almost singlehandedly managed to tear England apart. Countering Anne is good and noble Mary, who almost loses her soul to her family's ambition but in the end learns to trust her goodness. So what does it say about the direction of the film and the film itself when at the end we really don't care about Mary, and we don't want Anne to be beheaded even after we've seen Anne destroy her younger sister, destroy the good queen, and try to bed her brother?
Clearly directors need to learn to control Natalie Portman better. She's not yet as famous and powerful as Julia Roberts and Tom Cruise but already she can warp a film -- in a very uncanny Anne Boleyn way -- around her. The good news is that unlike Julia Roberts and Tom Cruise she is talented, and when she finds a script and meets a director worthy of her talent the result will be truly mesmerizing.
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