The Other Boleyn Girl (2008 film)

• 1. Introduction

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  The Other Boleyn Girl arrived in cinemas on the 29th of February 2008, a date that occurs only in leap years. Directed by Justin Chadwick and written by Peter Morgan, the film adapted Philippa Gregory's 2001 novel of the same name. At its center stands Mary Boleyn, the sister history has largely passed over. She was already Henry VIII's mistress before her older sister Anne began her own rise toward the throne. The film had premiered at the 58th Berlin International Film Festival, held the 7th to the 17th of February, before it reached general audiences. Bringing the story to the screen required a carefully chosen cast and a production spread across English country houses and castles. The budget stood at $35 million. What divided critics and drew audiences was a single question. Had the filmmakers told history, or simply dressed a soap opera in Tudor velvet?

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• 2. A Cast Assembled

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  One month before filming began, Natalie Portman started daily English accent classes under dialect coach Jill McCulloch. McCulloch also remained on set throughout the entire shoot. Portman said she was drawn to Anne because it was a character she 'hadn't played before.' She described Anne as 'strong, yet she can be vulnerable and she's ambitious and calculating.' Anne would also 'step on people but also feels remorse for it,' Portman added. The Other Boleyn Girl was her second film to use an English accent, following V for Vendetta. For it, she wore hair extensions, having shaved her head for that earlier production.

  Scarlett Johansson took the role of Mary Boleyn, who prefers country life to the Tudor court. Eric Bana played Henry VIII, describing the king as 'a man who was somewhat juvenile and driven by passion and greed.' Bana deliberately stayed away from other film portrayals of Henry, calling them 'too confusing and restricting.' He built his interpretation almost entirely from the screenplay.

  Jim Sturgess played George Boleyn, the sibling the film portrays as the most vulnerable and probably the kindest of the three. Benedict Cumberbatch appeared as William Carey, Mary's first husband. Eddie Redmayne played William Stafford. Andrew Garfield filmed scenes as Francis Weston but was cut from the final film, though he retained a screen credit. Hever Castle, the Boleyn family's home from 1505 to 1539, would pose the production its most conspicuous decision.

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• 3. The Tudor Landscape

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  Hever Castle, the home of the Boleyn family from 1505 to 1539, does not appear in the film. Despite its direct historical connection to the story, the production chose to leave it unused. A collection of English country houses and historic buildings were recruited in its place to stand in for Tudor-era palaces and towers.

  Dover Castle was transformed into the Tower of London for the execution scenes of George and Anne Boleyn. Knole House in Sevenoaks served as the setting for many of the film's London night scenes. Its inner courtyard doubled as the entrance to Whitehall Palace. The Tudor Gardens and Baron's Hall at Penshurst Place became the interiors of Whitehall, including the scenes of Henry's extravagant feast. Great Chalfield Manor near Melksham in Wiltshire represented the Boleyn family home. Scenes set further afield were shot in Derbyshire at Cave Dale, Haddon Hall, Dovedale, and North Lees Hall near Hathersage.

  The production's choice to film at Dover Castle rather than the actual Tower of London shaped the execution scenes. Those scenes, along with everything else in the film, reviewers would assess very differently when it opened.

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• 4. Mixed Verdicts

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  Rotten Tomatoes reported an approval rating of 43 percent based on 148 reviews, with a weighted average of 5.30 out of 10. Metacritic placed the film at an average score of 50 out of 100 based on 34 reviews. The consensus on Rotten Tomatoes captured the central disagreement: the film felt 'more like a soap opera than historical drama.'

  Manohla Dargis in The New York Times called the film 'more slog than romp' and an 'oddly plotted and frantically paced pastiche.' She noted that many scenes appeared 'whittled down to the nub,' reducing whole sequences to wordless gestures. Mick LaSalle of the San Francisco Chronicle came to a different conclusion. He argued that Portman's performance showed 'a range and depth unlike anything she's done before.' He predicted she would not receive the credit she deserved, because the film lacked the substance to attract serious attention.

  Peter Travers of Rolling Stone found the film moved in 'frustrating herks and jerks.' He singled out the pairing of Portman and Johansson as a genuinely combustible combination. Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian awarded three out of five stars. He called the film a 'flashy, silly, undeniably entertaining Tudor romp,' describing it as 'imagined with humour and gusto.' Sukhdev Sandhu of The Telegraph was the sharpest critic. He wrote that the film was 'more anodyne than it has any right to be.' The Telegraph critic felt it could not decide whether to be serious or comic. He described its soft-focus love scenes, soundtracked by swooning violins, as inducing 'dismissive laughs' in audiences.

  Despite the 43 percent approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, audiences attended in large enough numbers to make the film a financial success.

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• 5. Box Office and What Followed

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  The worldwide gross of The Other Boleyn Girl reached $78,199,679. Earnings in the United States and Canada came to $26,814,957, while the United Kingdom contributed $9,442,224. The DVD and Blu-ray editions of the film followed on the 10th of June 2008. Both formats included an audio commentary with director Justin Chadwick, deleted and extended scenes, character profiles, and featurettes. The Blu-ray also carried a picture-in-picture track with character descriptions, notes on the original story, and passages from the original book.

  BBC Films, one of the production companies behind the film, holds the rights to adapt The Boleyn Inheritance. That is the 2006 sequel novel by Philippa Gregory. The book focuses on three other women: Anne of Cleves, Catherine Howard, and Jane Parker. Should The Boleyn Inheritance reach the screen, Jane Parker would move from a minor character in one film to a protagonist in the next.

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