Overwrought scenes in the hands of director Justin Chadwick don't help us understand the star of this set-piece on a topic that's been done, pardon the pun, to death: the life and love, trials and tribulations of King Edward VIII's second wife, Anne Boleyn (a dreadful Natalie Portman). The twist in this telling is Anne's sister, Mary (played with typical style by Scarlett Johannson). It's all very Tudor and - yawn - predicable. There was a nugget of a story here in the rivalry between Anne and Mary for the affections of his-royal-pain-in-the-butt, Henry (Eric Bana), but the edge is lost by cumbersome dialogue and a plodding foreshadowing. Despite the dullness throughout, kudos to Kristen Scott Thomas for her fine work as Anne and Mary's mother, Lady Elizabeth, and Ana Torrent as Katherine of Aragon (her minute before Henry as the schism arrives is worth the rent alone).
Pretty costumes and some nifty visuals of life in the 15th century England land it my rating of 6 out of 10.
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