The Other Boleyn Girl

NEW YORK (CNS) -- "The Other Boleyn Girl" (Columbia/Focus) is a lushly filmed, fresh telling of the oft-dramatized liaison of Anne Boleyn (Natalie Portman) and King Henry VIII (Eric Bana), including the monarch's break with the Catholic Church so he could divorce his first wife, Catherine of Aragon (Ana Torrent).

Peter Morgan, the award-winning scriptwriter for "The Queen," has skillfully adapted Philippa Gregory's best-seller, and the accessible dialogue registers as acceptably "period."

As the title suggests, this narrative shows us how Anne's younger sister, Mary (Scarlett Johansson), despite being recently wed, came to catch the eye of the king before her sister.

Henry and his retinue are visiting the Boleyns. Against the wishes of their mother, Lady Elizabeth (Kristin Scott Thomas), the girls' father, Sir Thomas (Mark Rylance), and their uncle, the Duke of Norfolk (David Morrissey), scheme to ensconce Anne as the royal mistress, after learning of Queen Catherine's failure to bear a son.

Anne readily agrees, but Henry is more enchanted by the demure Mary when she tenderly ministers to his wounds after a riding mishap.

Before long, the whole family is called to court, so the unhappy Mary can be available to the king. When Henry finally summons her to bed, however, she finds she genuinely loves the monarch. But when her subsequent pregnancy requires extended bed rest, his ardor cools.

Anne, meanwhile, has engaged in a clandestine marriage, quickly dissolved by her angry parents, who pack her off to the French court. But with Mary laid up in bed, Sir Thomas and Norfolk soon contrive to bring Anne back to seduce Henry.

She, still smarting from what she perceives as Mary's disloyalty, sets out to dazzle the king with her teasing charm, while withholding sexual favors until he divorces Catherine and makes her his queen, pushing Henry to break from the church of Rome.

Mary delivers an illegitimate son, but Anne banishes them from court. When Henry summons Mary, whom he unequivocally trusts, to vouch that Anne's whirlwind marriage was never consummated, Mary nonetheless covers for her.

British director Justin Chadwick keeps the story absorbingly intimate, and despite the obvious soap opera aspects, tones down some of novelist Gregory's more fanciful elements.

Though there are no graphic sex, violence or language issues here, some of the sexual elements, particularly Anne's desperate suggestion that her brother, George (Jim Sturgess), help her conceive another child after a miscarriage -- a suggestion from which both he and Mary recoil in horror -- render it inappropriate for very young viewers.

There are surprisingly authentic performances by non-British leads Portman and Johansson, both very fine, and predictably solid supporting work from the British supporting cast and Spanish actress Torrent grandly dignified as the wronged Catherine.

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This is a good, old-fashioned historical drama of the kind we see too rarely on the big screen.

The film contains royal bedroom intrigue with nongraphic sexual encounters including a rape, incest reference, adultery, divorce, light sexual banter and innuendo, and discreetly filmed beheadings. It is acceptable for older teens. The USCCB Office for Film & Broadcasting classification is A-III -- adults. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is PG-13 -- parents strongly cautioned. Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13.

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Copyright (c) 2007 Catholic News Service/U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops