The Other Boleyn Girl

I was surprised that I liked this movie. I thought it would be sad, which it was. I thought it would be pedantic, and is was, but not as much as I expected. I guess because a lot of it was made up to make the movie (based off book by the same name) more interesting. It's based off real events, but it's not a biography or anything.

If you know anything about Henry VIII, you know how this movie is going to end, another reason I didn't want to watch it. No matter how much suspense they build, you know it's inevitable: Anne dies.



The story is about the Boleyn sisters, Anne who everybody knows and Mary who I've never heard of. Possible spoilers coming up.

After the King's wife fails to give him a son (classic Henry the 8th story), Anne Boleyn of a lesser but still royal family is assigned by her father and uncle to become the king's mistress to increase her royal standing. The king is more interested in her sister, Mary, who takes that job instead. Yada yada the king loses interest in Mary and Anne tries to swoop into her sister's place, thinking she could become the Queen of England and give the king the heir he wants. She convinces the king to divorce the queen for her. << Learned that in history. She doesn't give him a son, either, and he starts to get mad at her.

Now the definitive spoiler, so don't read further if you care that much.

She has a miscarriage and is afraid to tell Henry she failed again, so she asks her brother George (actually, begs him, there was a lot of crying in this scene) thinking she could replace the baby without the king finding out.

They came really close, but her brother says he can't. It was too late since George's wife saw everything before the "I can't" and ratted them out. Anne and George are tried for treason, adultery, and incest, and both are beheaded.

SAD. I mean, I didn't like Anne from the start of the movie since she sold her soul to be the Queen of England, but she was killed for something she didn't do and only thought about doing to make the king happy. I was sad about George, mostly because Jim Sturgess played him and I love that guy.

When he got beheaded, my sister screamed "Jude!" because that's who he plays in Across the Universe (brilliant movie). It broke the seriousness of the scene because I couldn't not laugh at her making that association, but it's even more tragic that they hacked their heads off with axes. Spring for a guillotine, England (that was invented 200 years later in a different country, wasn't it...) I have to do more research on the actual historical facts of Anne's death, but I heard that the incest part was made-up.

More spoilerific-ness. Earlier in the movie, Mary does have his son, but since it was an illegitimate child, it didn't count. Other than Edward, his child with Jane Seymour who died young from some diesease, Mary's was his only son. Historically accurate? I don't know, maybe not. Anne did not give him a son, but she did give him an heir. Their daughter Elizabeth took over, and every time you hear "Elizabethan" anything, they're talking about her.

So after that depressing movie, Anny and I decided to watch a happier Jim Sturgess movie, although Across the Universe is pretty dark in it's own right.

Point: The Other Boleyn Girl was good. I was prepared to fall asleep and ended up on the edge of my chair shouting at the TV. Oh, it starred Natalie Portman and Anne, Scarlett Johansson as Mary, Eric Bana as the King, and previously mentioned Jim Sturgess.

I will say yay for knowing history because that might have been hard to follow without the background info.