It would’ve been really difficult for a period soap opera featuring Natalie Portman and Scarlett Johannsen as bickering sisters to go wrong, and, while it’s not a masterpiece by any means, the film thankfully is not a disappointment. I am the first say I’m not a big fan of period movies, but The Other Boleyn Girl is one of the most entertaining films of its kind that I’ve seen in quite awhile. I didn’t see Elizabeth: The Golden Age, but I’d imagine this is an easier sit than that Oscar-winning period piece. While that looked to take itself extra seriously, The Other Boleyn Girl brims with sensationalism and eeks toward cheesiness. And there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that. 

Peter Morgan, who also scripted the highly commended 2006 Helen Mirren-starrer The Queen, writes a screenplay here that is thankfully not all over the place, going through the motions in one subplot after another. Instead he keeps things moving very quickly, with a plot that’s lean but filled with some great twists and turns. Natalie Portman plays Anne, and Scarlett Johannsen plays Mary, and the two are sisters who essentially fight to capture the affection of King Henry VIII (Eric Bana). King Henry finds joy in both women, but really all he wants is a baby boy to act as the heir to the throne when he passes. He doesn’t care about these women. All he cares about is the boy. But the two girls don’t really mind, and Anne especially finds great pleasure in her ambition to rise higher in the royal ranks.

The casting in The Other Boleyn Girl is a little odd, but that’s part of the fun. Pretty much anyone would assume that Portman and Johanssen would’ve switched their two roles, with Portman playing the more quiet and reserved Mary, and Johannsen playing the more bitchy and sassy Anne. That would’ve been the easy, predictable way. But director Jason Chadwick and the casting director made a great decision to go the more questionable route, and it succeeds fully. It’s almost weird to watch Johannsen be so subtle, so maudlin. This is the first performance in the last four years from her that reminds us of her lovely performance in Lost in Translation. Portman, who we know well from the achingly awkward Star Wars movies and better films like Beautiful Girls and V for Vendetta, is a lot of fun to watch because she usually doesn’t play a role this mean, borderline scary in the last act. She is well-worth the price of admission alone. Eric Bana isn’t as good as the King. Part of the problem is the character, who is a little bland in his quest for a male heir. Somebody a little bit older may have been more fitting. 

Aside from the Joe Wright romantic epic Pride and Prejudice, starring Keira Knightley, I haven’t had too much enjoyment at period films in the last few years (with Vanity Fair being one of the low points), but I really enjoyed The Other Boleyn Girl. I thought I might, due to my affection for the two leading ladies (who really do look like sisters!), but after some slower bits in the beginning, I really got into it, and I truly felt for Anne and Mary, and especially their mother (played well by Kristin Scott Thomas) after everything turns to tragic calamity in the end. It’s all really not much more than a soap opera with some pretty actors, costumes, and cinematography, but considering the time of year this is being released, and considering how deadly dull this could’ve been in the hands of a different, more egotistical director, The Other Boleyn Girl turned out just as well as I was hoping. And more.