Although the import of male lineage is discussed throughout The Other Boleyn Girl, Bana’s Henry is driven primarily by lust, not concern for his country or legacy (others worry about those things for him). Anne’s hatred of her sister leads her to dramatic acts of betrayal and to disregard for the consequences of Henry’s decision to divorce Catherine. The country’s break with Rome and the formation of the Church of England is almost an afterthought in The Other Boleyn Girl—a pesky necessity to be gotten out of the way so we can get back to the sexual one-upmanship and the grisly outcome of Anne’s conniving.

The story’s sole moral anchor is Kristin Scott-Thomas as Lady Elizabeth, the mother of the two girls, who can’t believe her husband would sell his daughters’ virtue for the hope of economic security and personal privilege. “When was it that people stopped thinking of ambition as a sin and starting thinking of it as a virtue?” she asks, mortified but unable to dissuade her husband from his plotting. “God … turned His back on this long ago,” she says of her family’s situation.

However, the film has little more to say about religion, other than to allow certain characters, at death’s doorstep, to speak a few final words about their Creator. The Other Boleyn Girl is nothing more than a soap opera that accentuates immorality, embellishes facts and celebrates its deviations from the historical record. Why the true story behind Anne Boleyn wasn’t deemed interesting enough to justify its own film, while this sordid saga was, is a more interesting subject to ponder than anything in The Other Boleyn Girl.

Questions? Comments? Contact the writer at crosswalkchristian@earthlink.net.

CAUTIONS:

• Language/Profanity:  An exclamation of “By God!” and a few misuses of God’s name; “piss pot”; some sexual come-ons and references to “whores” and to “whoring.”
• Drugs/Alcohol:  Wine consumption.
• Sex/Nudity:  King Henry is shown taking his shirt off, then bedding Mary more than once; later, he rapes Anne; discussion of “degrading” sexual acts, without elaboration; bare back of a woman as she bathes; an act of incest is halted before it can be carried out.
• Violence:  The fatal blows of beheadings are shown, cutting away just as the blade makes contact with the necks; a headless corpse, with a pool of blood, is shown from a high angle.