The Other Boleyn Girl

Big-budget Elizabethan period piece that comes off more like a Hollywood soap opera, starring three non-British leads that seem too hip and contemporary for this kind of melodramatic material. Divided into two sections: the first depicting two sisters, Anne (Portman) and Mary Boleyn (Johansson) competing for the love of King Henry VIII (Bana), and the second being a fast-forward through history showing Anne's ascent to the throne. The costumes and scenery are expectedly great, and script is surprisingly tight (even if it's occasionally anachronistic), but the execution is often confusing and awkward, reducing what could have been excellent to just plain old good. Based on the novel by Phillipa Gregory.