Rating of
2/4
"The Other Boleyn Girl" by Yojimbo
Yojimbo - wrote on 09/14/15
Two sisters share a love triangle with King Henry VIII when their ambitious family present them in their attempts to curry favour and increase their standing. The Other Boleyn Girl falls squarely into the trap that is so common to the adaptation of a historical novel; it creates a sensuous world of attractive actors dressed in attractive costumes, populating attractive sets and attractive locations shot through attractive filters, all the while forgetting to include a script with any depth, sophistication or engaging characters. There is clearly a wealth of material in the tale of Henry and his wives, the obvious meat of the story here being the role of women as pawns, honey traps and breeding machines for the use of patriarchal society. But all of this gets skimmed over like a Cliff Notes version of history as the superficial script hardly dwells on many of the dramatic events that occur, preferring the kind of stilted dialogue and contrived plot devices so common to this type of film. It's certainly very nice to look at but with so little to get your teeth into, The Other Boleyn Girl is more snack food than a king's banquet.
