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THE OTHER BOLEYN GIRL. Dir Justin Chadwick. 2008

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Fabulous cinematography creates a moving painting; colours and images stay in the mind long after the film has ended. Intense darkness, golden lighting and lustrous colour bring the Old Masters to life. Costume designer Sandy Powell used old works of art for research, so costuming is lavish and rich while the camera lingers on fabric, skin and hair to produce an acutely sensory experience.

Scarlett Johanssen plays the loyal and affectionate younger sister, Mary, used as a honey trap to charm the king and gain power for her family. Reluctant at first, she seems cast as unwilling whore but this fictional representation portrays Henry VIII and Mary Boleyn as tender lovers.

Henry (Eric Bana) is shown to be capricious and easily bewitched by Anne although her power appears fleeting. Natalie Portman plays the scheming Anne, maturing from cocky, arch young girl to challenging temptress, before she loses her hold over him, and her descent into terrified desperation is effective and gripping.

History has taught that Henry was under great pressure from his Council to provide England with a male heir, making him something of a stud bull, which is as disgusting as his usage of the poor cows he is under duress to impregnate. It may be romantically nostalgic to suggest he and Mary had true love and trust when his record as a fickle, wife murdering syphilitic ruin is plain. Had he genuinely sired a bastard son, born of Mary, it would have fulfilled his obligation to England and allowed him to return to his sport and hunting but, historically, did he really? Or was Mary's son fathered by some other court member?

The Other Boleyn Girl focuses on the period in Henry’s life when he was physically attractive to women, before he divided the country and massacred thousands of monks, and it is an exquisitely beautiful film. Screenwriter Peter Morgan’s adaptation of Philippa Gregory’s novel revitalizes a dramatic period in English history, shows the opulence, ambition and deceptions of Court life, and this film is as sumptuous as the velvets, fur and jewels which adorn the cast.
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