At the onset of "The Other Boleyn Girl" -- director Justin Chadwick's big screen adaptation of Philippa Gregory's best-selling novel of the same name -- one might be apt to have the old Herman's Hermits song, "I'm Henry the Eighth, I Am" running through their head. That isn't because the film is a light and fun romp (far from it), but rather due to many of us having forgotten what we learned many decades ago in history class about King Henry VIII, who ruled England from the early to mid 16th century.
Of course, the aforementioned song isn't about the monarch at all, but rather a man who's the eighth husband to the widow next door who's been married seven times before (the fact that the king was married six times is probably what has resulted in the incorrect connection).
If that's the song you might be pondering at the beginning of the film, the one that might conclude it could be Irving Berlin's "Sisters, Sisters" due to lyrics such as "Lord help the mister who comes between me and my sister. And Lord help the sister, who comes between me and my man."
And that's because the familial soap opera bubbles fly furiously and the melodrama is slathered on quite thickly in this adaptation of Gregory's work With only a superficial knowledge of the real life events, I can't attest one way or the other about the story's historical accuracy and/or artistic license taken with that.
Even so, those who've enjoyed screenwriter Peter Morgan's previous cinematic dalliances with real and figurative royalty (he also penned "The Queen" and "The Last King of Scotland" -- not to mention a TV movie about this particular monarch) may be disappointed with the results this time around.
Yes, the film has a stellar cast, looks terrific from a technical standpoint, and features strong work in both the production and costume design. And not being familiar with Gregory's work, one can only presume Morgan and Chadwick are following -- to one degree or another -- her literary story as their plot and character guide.
Yet, what may have worked in book form doesn't exactly excel on the screen where motivations and behavior end up much larger than life and the egregiousness thus becomes amplified to exaggerated levels. That said, things start off fairly decently as the premise is set up and the various players are introduced. And when the manipulation, treachery and backstabbing start falling into place, one gets the feeling that this might be a deliciously wicked little diversion that sexes up what otherwise may come off as mundane, historical facts.
The truth, however, is that the real-life story is anything but boring (as it even included the formation of the Church of England once the Pope in Rome and Henry had a falling out over the latter's views of marriage and divorce). Unfortunately, the filmmakers nevertheless opt to amp things up progressively as the story unfolds.
Accordingly, they take it too far over the top into melodramatic theatrics and silliness, meaning initial interesting character behavior turns into histrionic-based caricature. And when the film starts racing through time in the third act to get to its historical conclusion -- the one that non-history buffs will recall -- that only adds to the film's woes.
Not surprisingly, the performances follow a similar trajectory. While the casting of Scarlett Johansson and Natalie Portman as the Boleyn sisters might ruffle some feathers (for being foreigners playing Brits), the two are decent at first, but unravel proportionally as the melodrama levels rise.
The same holds true for Eric Bana as the king whose motivation goes into crazed turbo mode in the second half, Kristin Scott Thomas can only look perpetually perturbed as the girls' mother, while David Morrissey essentially plays a human cartoon as the always scheming and conniving uncle who's the catalyst for all that goes wrong.
While the concluding lines of Berlin's song are spot on for the plot here, the melodrama takes over to the point that one is also likely to imagine the familiar strains of most any afternoon soap opera score playing somewhere in the background of royal 16th century England. And that's not a good thing, although it's unlikely anyone will lose their head over that. "The Other Boleyn Girl" rates as a 4 out of 10.
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