The Other Boleyn Girl: Critic Reviews

A classy romantic cocktail distinguished by its tart yet breezy bite.

More slog than romp, The Other Boleyn Girl tells the salacious story of two hot blue bloods who ran amok and partly unclothed in the court of Henry VIII.

It is absurd yet enjoyable, and playing fast and loose with English history is a refreshing alternative to slow and tight solemnity; the effect is genial, even mildly subversive.

[An] oversimplified, overheated mediocre melodrama.

Even by its own standards, the movie becomes increasingly macabre and ludicrous as Anne's machinations get the better of her, and everyone, including the audience, is left feeling shattered, shaken and vaguely unclean for having participated in all this.

The Other Boleyn Girl is the kind of potted historical drama that's not good enough to take seriously and, sadly, not bad enough to be any fun.

As the girls' mother, Kristin Scott Thomas is basically reduced to shaking her head, sighing and wondering how things turned out so badly. Indeed.

After covering much of its ground at a stylish canter, The Other Boleyn Girl finishes at a plod.

The film's seduction is all too obvious to ravish anyone.

Ms. Johansson fills the screen in her usually quiet but piercing manner.

Neither Johansson nor Portman convince.

And what of these young American actresses' putting on British accents to vie for the king? They seem, at first, like coeds in a college production of The Importance of Being Earnest, but once the dislocation fades, their commitment wins you over.

If Russ Meyer had made The Other Boleyn Girl, Anne and Mary Boleyn would have yanked some hair, scratched some eyeballs, walloped each other in their respective kissers, and the movie would have been all the better for it.

Sticklers for historical accuracy are forewarned: This glossy production plays fast and loose with the facts, abbreviating, altering and excising entire character arcs and plot lines.

Despite a certain amount of moral outrage and good performances from the lead actresses, it's neither sexy enough to qualify as good trash nor serious enough to pass for history.

Given the zing and zip of [screenwriter] Morgan's prior work, it's fair to guess that the film's want of rhythm and sweep is due to Justin Chadwick's pedestrian direction.

Wow! Hot dueling sisters. Beheadings. Untold wealth and power. Lush costumes. Decisions that change the course of history. And, again -- hot dueling sisters! So how come The Other Boleyn Girl is such a snooze?

It probably shouldn't be the way in which high-school kids learn about Henry VIII and his court, but it's a fun movie.

A sexy Tudor soap opera about the beautiful, sensual and tragic second wife of Henry VIII.

A sexy, good-looking political bodice-ripper with an almost flawless cast at the top of its game.

Unsexy and not particularly good-looking.

Whatever its virtues, this is entirely too much melodrama to cram into a feature film. Characters are lost, too much happens off camera, and the whole compacted thing feels like Reader's Digest history.

[A] vulgarized portrayal of the Tudor court.

What might have been delicious trash lacks the courage of its trashy convictions, and the result is high-born melodrama with the juice boiled out, so much dry cabbage on fine-china plate.

A genteel soap opera in which the sex and intrigue are so muted, so tasteful, that they practically blow off the screen in a scattering of dust.