I’ve loved the book The Other Boleyn Girl, by Philippa Gregory, ever since one of my close friends Natalie introduced me to it back in junior high, so I was really excited when I saw the commercials for the movie start popping up. I thought, yay, they’re finally going to bring the book to life for me, and I figured it would be pretty good since Scarlett Johansson and Natalie Portman were billed as the major stars. Well, I saw the movie tonight with the boyfriend, and it was…okay. Parts of it seemed rushed, parts I liked from the book were left out or reduced to very small moments, and parts were just overdone and overdramatized. The costumes were gorgeous but the actresses weren’t used to their full potential and the whole plot seemed really contrived and reduced to simple sibling rivalry.
I mean, come on, both the book and the movie revolve around King Henry VIII’s court and the major roles that both Boleyn sisters, Mary and Anne, played in shaping England’s future. There was so much more exciting drama and romance and angst and hell, even sex, in the book, and it was squished into this dark-toned soap opera-ish movie that didn’t live up to the great movie it could have been.
It was pretty funny how squicked out everyone got in the movie during the scene when Anne pretty much demands her brother George have sex with her so she can pass a baby boy off as the king’s son. There was this horrified pause where everyone was probably thinking, is she asking what I think she’s asking, and then I heard more than a few “ewwwws” throughout the theater. Me and the boyfriend couldn’t stop snickering. Imagine how horrified most of them would be if they ever read the book, where Anne really did sleep with her brother and get pregnant by him, only to miscarry a deformed baby, which eventually lead to her getting her head chopped off. Ah, the sexual excesses of England’s royalty back in the day. Everyone in the courts back then were sleeping around, manipulating alliances, pawning off sons and daughters for money or power, the works, like a whole built-in soap opera that really happened. It’s one of my favorite historical subjects/periods to read and research about =)
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It seems as though, unless there are a ton of stellar special affects, any movie that is created based on a book is doomed to failure. The directors have a desire to make it their own and they follow that “vision” until the end. Never mind that the book might just be fine the way it is.
Wow that book seriously sounds interesting. I would read it if I could get it somewhere…library maybe? That B- word is going to be hard to remember, though…Boleyn…?
Ugh, dont you just hate that! I cant stand readin’ great books, just to see the movie and be disappointed. it feels like a waste of money. The only books Ive read who have great movies so far is the Harry Potter series and A Raisin in the Sun.
:O The Other Boleyn Girl is my favorite book (besides Harry Potter)! I haven’t seen the movie yet and I think I’ll wait till it comes out on DVD. I’m not too keen on movies that are nothing like the book and I could tell from the trailers that the movie wasn’t going to be true to the it.
I’m obsessed with everything Tudor England. I’ve actually been writing a biography of Elizabeth; I have 20 on pages done and I’ve been working on it for 3 months, haha.