The Other Boleyn Girl

Well, the costumes are certainly the best thing about this costume drama. The direction by Justin Chadwick (of the superlative BBC Bleak House) is quite fluent, if emotionally inert. More might have been expected from Peter Morgan, screenwriter for The Queen. Natalie Portman acts her little heart out as Anne Boleyn, evincing no winces but little genuine insight either, while Scarlett Johansson is reliably watchable as her sister Mary, each of them pimped out in turn to by their father and uncle to Henry VIII. As the latter, Eric Bana is no more than a clotheshorse. Mark Rylance and Kristin Scott Thomas as the girls’ parents add class to the proceedings, but nothing really adds up. This attempt to find one more angle on an oft-told story sometimes works as eye candy, but seldom as drama. (2008, dvd, n.) *5+* (MC-50.)