Loved the Book...

Having this "thing" about Tudor England, I devoured Philippa Gregory's THE OTHER BOLEYN GIRL and in fact have devoured it several times. It's a page-turner: rich in 'you-are-there' feeling and crammed with love, lust, witchcraft, incest and homosexuality as the power-mad Howard family tries to get one of its girls on the throne of England and a male heir in the royal nursery. 

Historical accuracy may have been thrown to the wind much of the time but then, who knows? Maybe the story really DID go like this. Certainly the affair between Henry VIII and Mary Boleyn took place and Mary may even have given birth to one or even two children by the lusty young king before his passions transferred to her sister Anne. And we all know where THAT led.

Anyway, now the film has come out starring Scarlett Johansson as Mary and Natalie Portman as Anne with Eric Bana as Henry VIII. Quite a sexy trio. First notices indicate that the movie doesn't do the book justice. No matter: I'll want to see it anyway.

Comments

[Sarah]

OK. This is one of my absolute favorite books and so I ran out to see the movie on Friday and I was seriously disappointed. They tried too hard to squeeze the entire 700 page book into under 2 hours and I thought the performances weren't that phenomenal.

That being said, the costumes alone make it worth viewing. BUT it pales in comparison to Showtime's "The Tudors" which comes back for its second season really soon. If you haven't seen it, I'd suggest picking up the first season and watching it!

I can't wait to see what you think about the movie...

[philip]

Sarah, we watched THE TUDORS and liked it a lot...but then, I tend to like anything Tudor.

There is also a BBC adaptation of THE OTHER BOLEYN GIRL coming out on DVD which features one of my favorite glamour-type actresses, Natasha McElhone.

Did you think that Johansson and Portman were "too old" to be playing the sisters? Weren't they both in their mid-teens when they returned to England from the French court and began their rise to stardom? We have it on our Netflix 'futures' list.

[Laura]

I saw The Other Boleyn Girl last night and it was not very good. I loved the book but the movie just did not do it justice. Having said that, the theater was packed and my sister and I enjoyed watching the movie if for nothing else than the fabulous stars and beautiful costumes.

As an aside, we saw Nilas Martins at the Rosa Mexicana across the street from LIncoln Center as we were dining, pre-movie! He came right up to us (when it was clear we recognized him) and said hello and talked about some of his upcoming projects. He was very friendly and sociable and I have nothing but good things to say about our encounter!

[philip]

Nilas is a great guy; he used to be an occasional customer of mine at Tower and he was always very amiable.

I'd like to see BOLEYN GIRL on the big screen but maybe I'll just wait for it on Netflix.

How was the musical score if the film?

[sophie b]

I am also a big Tudor fan, and while the movie seems to have received generally tepid reviews I still want to see it. I also can't wait for season 2 of the Tudors!

[philip]

Hi Sophie, I was thinking of you today when I was at the Paul Taylor performance.

[Bob]

For those of you who want to see THE OTHER BOLEYN GIRL, don't be deterred by the tepid reviews from seeing it. I'm sure that as is so often the case, if you have read the book, you will find that film does not do it justice or is simply not as good. But not having read the book, I went in without any preconceptions and simply watched the film on its own merits, and I found it to be a rewarding experience. Whatever its historical inaccuracies, the movie tells a fascinating story and let's face it - with the dearth of good movies out there right now, this is one of the better ones to spend your money on.

[philip]

I think a lot of people will go see it because of the three stars, if nothing else.