The Other Boleyn Girl (2008)

WARNING: Major Spoilers Ahead!

Based on the successful novel by Philippa Gregory, The Other Boleyn Girl is a tale of lust, treachery, power and obsession surrounding two sisters and the King of England. Though some define the story as a romanticized account of the love triangle between Anne Boleyn, her sister Mary and King Henry VIII, there is hardly anything romantic (in the modern sense) about it at all.

When King Henry VIII’s wife fails to deliver him a male heir to the throne, England’s leader grows restless and begins looking elsewhere to father a future king. Thomas Boleyn, a nobleman and brother-in-law to the Duke of Norfolk hatches a plan to move himself up in the world by positioning his daughter, Anne (Natalie Portman), to catch the King’s eye while he visits the Boleyn estate. Anne has reservations about being a mistress but gives in to the pressure from her father and uncle.

The plan goes awry when the King (Eric Bana) is injured while hunting and gets nursed back to health by Anne’s older sister, Mary (Scarlett Johansson), who is already married. The King invites Mary to his castle and sends her husband away to separate them. Reluctant at first, Mary falls in love with King Henry and begins to cherish the potentially powerful position she finds herself in. She becomes pregnant, which is somewhat scandalous, as King Henry is still bound to his wife by Catholic marriage.

When Mary experiences complications and nearly miscarries, Anne is sent to care for her sister, who is now bed-ridden until the baby can be born. Holding a grudge against Mary for several things in their past, Anne begins to seduce Henry, taunting him with her body but resisting his lustful advances. She drives Henry mad with her demands but he gives in to Anne and banishes Mary from the castle (even after she bears him a healthy son) and breaks England from the Catholic Church so he can divorce his wife and wed Anne.

History tells us the rest of the story- Anne can’t produce a male heir so Henry has her tried and executed, moving on to his latest woman of choice. Certainly not a happy ending but it’s fitting because very little of this film is happy to begin with.

The Other Boleyn Girl will likely be hit or miss with audiences. If you like speculative fiction about historical figures, then this might be up your alley. If you’re not into British history or convoluted love triangles, then I would advise you to pass. This movie is also very bleak and very much a downer, so stay away if you can’t handle a less-than-happy ending.

The biggest problem plaguing this film is the lack of a protagonist. There’s no hero to this story, not even a tragic one. Both of the Boleyn girls resort to despicable behavior, either by giving in to the King’s raw lust or by trying to sabotage the other’s success in raising their family’s political capital. Morals are compromised all over the board and barely anyone blinks an eye while they do it. The only person who I could feel sympathetic for at all during this film was Elizabeth Boleyn, mother of Anne and Mary. She could not stand what her husband and brother were attempting to do just to raise their stake in life. In the end she is a broken and sad woman, the true victim.

It’s hard to say who is worse in this film. King Henry is a dubious, arrogant husk of a man, drunk on power and lust. Thomas Boleyn is a wretched father who is willing to sacrifice the dignity of not one but two of his daughters in order to increase his standing and “honor” in the world. And, at times, both of the Boleyn girls themselves are just as bad, either as a smug mistress or a shrewish temptress. Both have tasted power and want to hold on to it. If not for some resolution between the girls at the film’s end, this would be a four-way tie for the worst character involved.

Without a proper protagonist to invest in, I found myself reacting to the events of the film instead of absorbing them. No scene better emphasizes this point than the rape scene. Anne has finally gotten Henry to give in to all of her demands and tries to halt his advances still but he is so filled with lust and rage that he ends Anne’s little games and rapes her. The scene is brutal but I didn’t feel sorry for Anne. Instead, I was shocked and appalled by how far these characters had spiraled downward.

In some ways, The Other Boleyn Girl is like a train wreck in slow motion. It’s not that it’s a bad film. It’s just that the story it tells progressively gets worse and worse and leaves you at the bottom of a well of despair. The cinematography, sets and costumes were all pretty good but this heavy-handed piece of historical fiction knocked the wind out of me. Not in a good way either.

RATING: 2.5 out of 5

Across the Universe (2007)

Released amidst the recent onslaught of contemporary movie musicals, Across the Universe tells a tale of love, political unrest and war during the 1960s set to the music of The Beatles. As The Beatles’ popularity is still strong as ever and considering the success of movies such as Moulin Rouge!, that use a menagerie of contemporary tunes to fuel its story, Across the Universe undoubtedly seemed to be not only a safe bet but a good idea as well. Unfortunately, the film never manages to escape the realm of just a “good idea.”

If any group deserves to have their songs used in the form of a musical production, it’s The Beatles. Their career and discography are expansive to say the least. With all their sounds and styles, you could use their music in several different genres of musicals. It’s all a matter of how it’s executed. Writer-director Julie Taymor came up with a good idea but failed in the execution.

Song and dance numbers in musicals are meant to be fun and entertaining, which is mostly true for Across the Universe, but they are also supposed to help move the story along. That’s not the case here. Instead, the use of The Beatles’ songs is the main selling point, leaving the actual story and plot as an aside, calling upon it momentarily to help move us into the next rendition of a Beatles classic.

The plot itself is quite generic- a young man from England moves to America in the 1960s in the hopes of making something of himself. He falls in love with a girl and they get caught up in the turmoil of the times, encountering a variety of colorful characters along the way. Some call it a tried-and-true formula but it feels more tiredly formulaic than anything else. Case in point- the use of the Vietnam War as an antagonistic backdrop. Vietnam has been used so many times in so many films that it has almost lost its value as an antagonist. And the use of it as a shallow allusion to modern military struggles has only become tacky for me.

The characters are another of the film’s problems. All of them are flat, filling out one kind of gross generalization or archetype or another. Other characters are stand-ins for cultural icons like Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin. Very few, if any, characters have any depth, which makes them hard to appreciate or get behind. The actors all do a very good job of singing The Beatles’ tunes but that only gets you so far.

While I appreciate the use of several songs that are not among the most oft-heard Beatles tunes on the radio, I feel slightly robbed at the same time. Tunes like “Oh! Darling,” “Blue Jay Way,” and “I’ve Just Seen a Face” are inspired choices and help satisfy people like me, who enjoy The Beatles’ entire catalogue, but with the songs being the main focus of the film, why not go for broke and include all the classics? Where’s “Love Me Do,” “Help!” and “A Hard Day’s Night”? I’m sure they could have been slipped in there somewhere.

Perhaps to make up for some of the songs left out of the production, or perhaps just to be extra cheeky, many of the characters are named after people in Beatles songs. You’ve got Sadie, Jude, Lucy, JoJo, Maxwell, Desmond, Molly, Dr. Robert, Mr. Kite and even Prudence! But nowhere to be found is Eleanor Rigby, Father McKenzie, or Sgt. Pepper. At first it’s somewhat amusing but then the references just keep coming and it gets tired in a hurry.

The other issue I had with the film was with some of the ways the song lyrics were re-interpreted to fit the story. I didn’t have a problem with a teenage lesbian singing “I Want to Hold Your Hand” while watching the head cheerleader do her thing but when Uncle Sam starts singing “I Want You” in the draft office and soldiers carrying the Statue of Liberty through Vietnamese rice patties crying out “She’s so heavy!,” I can’t help but roll my eyes. The few times Taymor tries to use the songs to help the story we get groan-worthy literal segments like this.

All in all, Across the Universe is a good idea. It really is. But to make it work, you would need to relegate the Beatles songs to the role of a supporting player, something Taymor seems unwilling to do. Instead of crafting a love story and capturing the romance and drama of the 60s, all Across the Universe manages to be is a Beatles sing-a-long that doubles as an anti-war film.

RATING: 1.75 out of 5