The Other Boleyn Girl

Being an avid reader of historical romance, actually I had never read the book version of this movie. As most of you know, this movie is adapted from a book with the same title by Phillipa-something. Soooryyy, I really couldn't remember the name.

Eventhough this movie came out last year, I only watched it this morning at HBO..haha! Trust me, sometimes I just got so many free times by splurging myself with movies.

The movie, starring 2 beautiful actress - Natalie Portman and Scarlett Johansson and uuuhhh...another macho man (by my standard), Eric Bana. If any of you don't know Eric Bana, he's the one playing Hector in Troy. I know, compared with Brad Pitt (in Troy), Bana kindda fall to the shadow but neverthless, he's soooo YUMMY!!! *slurp*slurp* hahaha! M not a freak but I like to appreciate God's creation on fellow human...hehe!

Set in the 14th century, it's the story (true story as I read from the history) of the Boleyn sisters - Anne (Portman) and Mary (Johansson) and King Henry VIII (Bana). In this story, Anne is the older sister to Mary but as the historians believe, Mary was older than Anne. I really couldn't imagine how's life for the royals in the 14th century but from this story, being the king's mistress who can give him a male heir is considered an honor for the mistress.

Anne, the beautiful of the 2 Boleyn girls, always had a big ambition for herself and she had always wanted to be the queen of England. While Mary, was always the 'shadow' of her sister. Until one day, the king had an accident while riding and Mary tend to him. The king took a liking of Mary and made her his mistress. When Mary eventually got pregnant with the king's baby, she was isolated (for the baby's sake). Hence Anne was asked to 'replace' Mary's shoe to 'entertain' the king until the baby's born. But Anne had a mind of her own.

Anne would not sleep with the king until he divorced his queen, Catherine of the Aragone(?) - did I spelt that right? Anyway, it's noted in history of England that during the reign of King Henry VIII, England was separated from the Church of Rome which allowed him to divorce his queen and remarry. He did and married Anne soon after.

Anne gave birth to a daughter, Elizabeth and when she failed to give King Henry a male heir, Anne determined to sleep with any man - her own brother (in this story) coz the king won't lay with her anymore. They didn't do it but when the king found out, both of them were to be beheaded. Mary (being banished to the country after the birth of her son, Henry) did come back to the palace and begged King Henry to spare Anne's life. The king somehow gave Mary hopes that Anne's life would be spared but in the end, it didn't.

From the history, King Henry VIII had 6 wives and Anne was the second. And also from the history goes, 2 of his wives were beheaded. Hmmm....I guess, the Tower of London won't be in my list of places to visit if I ever go to London. The idea of people being beheaded....urrghhh...I have a wild imagination. I don't want to dwell into it..