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'The Other Boleyn Girl'

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BY JAN STUART | jan.stuart@newsday.com

February 28, 2008

The British are still so traumatized by the erosion of their royal seat that, four centuries after the fall of the house of Tudor, they can't find an English actor to ascend that particular throne.

It took an Australian with a French-sounding surname to play Elizabeth I in two screen epics, and now another Australian has been shipped over to do Henry VIII. Adding indignity to shame, producers of "The Other Boleyn Girl" felt impelled to dip into the American colonies to cast Henry's second wife, Anne Boleyn, and her sister Mary.

Maybe the shoe fits. Despite the authentic locations and the script's British pedigree (adapted by "The Queen's" Peter Morgan from a novel by Philippa Gregory), "The Other Boleyn Girl" exudes a swaggering vulgarity more "Yankee Doodle Dandy" than "Rule Britannia." Beneath the thundering horse hoofs and happy wedding fiddles is a viper's nest of sexual intrigue that would be at home on "Desperate Housewives."

If Anne Boleyn had her head trimmed at the scaffold, it could be blamed on her own hubris and the smarmy ambitions of her dad Sir Thomas Boleyn (Mark Rylance). Boleyn sees a major power op on the news that King Henry's wife, Katherine of Aragon (Ana Torrent) is unable to produce an heir. Boleyn attempts to manipulate his daughter Anne ( Natalie Portman) into the king's boudoir, but, as a result of Anne's rash judgment calls, the king ( Eric Bana) shifts his flirtations to her demure, recently married sister Mary ( Scarlett Johansson).

As Mary ascends in favor as Henry's mistress, Anne endeavors to steal another woman's fiance and, then, displace her sister and Katherine from the palace.

Morgan's screenplay can't decide whether Anne is a feisty, independent spirit ahead of her time or a victim of patriarchal oppression. Portman's eyebrows get a workout, rising and falling like a drawbridge to accentuate Anne's selfish determination and platitudes about the sexes.

The British cast members excel, most notably Kristin Scott-Thomas as the Boleyn girls' incensed mother.

THE OTHER BOLEYN GIRL (PG-13) Anne Boleyn and sister Mary (played by those two seasoned interpreters of British manners, Natalie Portman and Scarlett Johansson) vie for the heart of King Henry VIII. History with a load of hooey. Justin Chadwick directs. 1:55 (mature thematic elements, sexual content and some violent images). At area theaters.