The Other Boleyn Girl
Columbia Pictures | Release Date: February 29, 2008 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
50
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 34 Critic Reviews
Positive:
14
Mixed:
15
Negative:
5
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
83
Seattle Post-IntelligencerWilliam Arnold
An absorbing, exciting costume drama that works as a historical romance, a family tragedy and a showcase for its young stars. Read full review
75
Entertainment WeeklyOwen Gleiberman
A classy romantic cocktail distinguished by its tart yet breezy bite. Read full review
75
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
The result is an entertainingly sudsy trip through early 16th century English history. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalle
An enjoyable movie with an entertaining angle on a hard-to-resist period of history. Read full review
75
Christian Science MonitorPeter Rainer
A richly appointed period piece, it features kingly tantrums, mistresses, bodices, roaring fireplaces, incest, and mutton. It also features sharply enunciated, period-perfect dialogue in which nary a contraction can be heard. Read full review
70
VarietyDerek Elley
A sexy, good-looking political bodice-ripper with an almost flawless cast at the top of its game. Read full review
70
L.A. WeeklyChuck Wilson
Stuck for years playing young women who are the idealized object of male desire (Portman and Johansson)-- flaw-free and, in Johansson's case, barely conscious -- they come alive in The Other Boleyn Girl, as if being bound up in costumer Sandy Powell's exquisite gowns has freed them from the tighter constraints of their own beauty. Read full review
67
Austin ChronicleMarc Savlov
Works both as an engagingly sordid meditation on protofeminism and contemporized sisterhood set in a time and a place where either/or were grounds for, at the very least, defenestration. Read full review
67
The A.V. ClubTasha Robinson
The film looks terrific, all Vermeer-style light/dark interplay and sleek design. And Portman is fantastic as the tempestuous Anne. Read full review
63
Chicago TribuneJessica Reaves
Eric Bana doesn’t have much to do as Henry VIII except play the monarch as an overgrown spoiled brat. He is, however, awfully nice to look at. Read full review
63
PremiereAndrew Grant
Two-hours of trashy eye-candy that, while fast and loose with the truth, functions as a perfectly adequate divertissement in a time of year when studios tend to unleash their worst. Read full review
63
TV Guide MagazineMaitland McDonagh
It's a terrific showcase for battling Boleyn babes Scarlett Johansson and Natalie Portman. Read full review
63
Rolling StonePeter Travers
In Portman's dynamic performance you can see strength and vulnerability warring for Anne's soul. In this bedroom view of history, it's that image that sticks. Read full review
63
Philadelphia InquirerCarrie Rickey
Feels less like an epic drama about power and the power of love than an episode of a Masterpiece Theatre mini-series. Read full review
60
The Hollywood ReporterRay Bennett
Shot in high definition and filmed at many historic locations, the film somehow still lacks the splendor of an epic, and its urgency to get on with the next plot point leaves much unexplained while context goes out the window. Read full review
60
SlateDana Stevens
For a movie whose story hinges almost entirely on sex, The Other Boleyn Girl is disappointingly demure. Read full review
60
EmpireWill Lawrence
A rather titillating take on a racy historical novel, this is perhaps too ambitious in intent. More time, or more pruning (perhaps they should just have focused on The Boleyn girl), would have produced a richer and more enjoyable film. Read full review
50
New York Magazine (Vulture)David Edelstein
A brisk feminist melodrama that is, historically speaking, a load of wank. It has the feel of a game of “telephone,” in which information is progressively mangled. Read full review
50
Charlotte ObserverLawrence Toppman
If you're indifferent to silly revisions of history and bad acting, you may enjoy The Other Boleyn Girl. I'm not, and I didn't. Read full review
50
USA TodayClaudia Puig
Can't quite figure out what it wants to be. At times it strains to be a stately period drama about 16th-century political intrigue. Then it devolves into soap opera muck and emerges as a rather tame bodice ripper. Read full review
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Rick Groen
What might have been delicious trash lacks the courage of its trashy convictions, and the result is high-born melodrama with the juice boiled out, so much dry cabbage on fine-china plate. Read full review
50
Chicago ReaderJonathan Rosenbaum
It's neither sexy enough to qualify as good trash nor serious enough to pass for history. Read full review
50
New York Daily NewsElizabeth Weitzman
Chadwick builds a brisk pace and sweeping scope that initially grab our interest. But this Anne's sole motivations are sex and greed, and the wild rumors that were designed to destroy her are treated here as gospel. Read full review
50
Los Angeles TimesKenneth Turan
Not content to be a mildly diverting royal bodice-ripper, it spirals out of control into the kind of overwrought dramaturgy that's out of its league. Read full review
50
Miami HeraldConnie Ogle
Think "Cruel Intentions" in period costume, or better yet, Sofia Coppola's "Marie Antoinette," which managed to take its subject matter lightly and seriously at the same time. Read full review
42
Baltimore SunMichael Sragow
This rendering of the turbulent second marriage of England's King Henry VIII proves too heavy-footed for the old movie two-step of setting up a morality tale, then exploiting it for heat and titillation. Read full review
40
Washington PostDesson Thomson
Even by its own standards, the movie becomes increasingly macabre and ludicrous as Anne's machinations get the better of her, and everyone, including the audience, is left feeling shattered, shaken and vaguely unclean for having participated in all this. Read full review
40
The New York TimesManohla Dargis
Forced to compete for kingly favors, the women were soon rivals, a contest that, in its few meagerly entertaining moments, recalls the sisterly love in “What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?” Read full review
40
Wall Street JournalJoe Morgenstern
After covering much of its ground at a stylish canter, The Other Boleyn Girl finishes at a plod. Read full review
38
New York PostLou Lumenick
It's pretty hard to make a dull movie about Henry VIII and his complicated love life, but The Other Boleyn Girl, a failed Oscar contender, manages to do just that, with yawns to spare. Read full review
38
Boston GlobeTy Burr
Not good enough to take seriously and, sadly, not bad enough to be any fun. Read full review
33
Portland OregonianM. E. Russell
The all-description storytelling leads to other problems, too, the worst being that "Boleyn" suffers from the same affliction as "The Golden Compass," where you're told about interesting stuff happening elsewhere in another movie you'd much rather be watching. Read full review
30
SalonStephanie Zacharek
The most sterile of bodice-rippers, a genteel soap opera in which the sex and intrigue are so muted, so tasteful, that they practically blow off the screen in a scattering of dust. Read full review
10
Film ThreatMatthew Sorrento
The falling blade is the only element not missing the mark in this film. I wanted to call for the beheading after Act One, and spare the audience instead. Read full review
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