About.com Rating

The Other Boleyn Girl is a lurid costume drama that lacks both the earnestness of Shekhar Kapur's Elizabeth and the go-for-broke delirium of its sequel. The film's main goal seems to be to stick stars Scarlett Johannson and Natalie Portman in a few catty scenes together, undress them in soft focus, and show them bathe or be bedded by Eric Bana, who doesn't have much else to do as glowering King Henry.

Heaving Bosoms and Trembling Lips

Not that there's anything wrong with that -- and director Justin Chadwick works hard to dress up the historical triangle with everything we expect: the common folk dance, horses thunder, banners flap in the wind, clouds move swiftly above battlements, Johannson's bosom heaves, Portman's lips tremble, and finally, heads roll. A trashy pageant that delivers what it promises, The Other Boleyn Girl is also the perfect prequel to Elizabeth; the final image of the former seems custom-made to line up with the first scenes of the latter.

The Other Boleyn Girl (2008): A Columbia Pictures release. Opens nationwide on February 29.