Portman and Johansson bring 'The Other Boleyn Girl' to life

Dozens of movies about King Henry VIII and his wives litter cinema history -- it's one of the most overworked of all historical subjects ( only last year we had season one the Showtime series "The Tudors"). Is there really room for another one?

As it turns out, yes. This year's entry in the genre, "The Other Boleyn Girl," is one of the best: not much of a visual epic maybe, but an absorbing, exciting costume drama that works as a historical romance, a family tragedy and a showcase for its young stars.

Based on Philippa Gregory's 2002 bestselling novel (which already had been filmed as a 2003 television movie in the United Kingdom), it views its familiar slice of 16th-century history through the eyes of the two Boleyn sisters: Anne (Natalie Portman) and Mary (Scarlett Johansson).

When the marriage between the king (Eric Bana) and Katherine of Aragon (Ana Torrent) goes sour, the ambitious Sir Thomas Boleyn (Mark Rylance) sees an opportunity and tries to maneuver his equally conniving elder daughter, Anne, into the king's bed.

But when the somewhat dull-witted regent visits the Boleyn estate, he falls not for Anne but her younger sister, Mary, who already is happily married, has no interest in being the king's mistress and succumbs only under royal command and intense family pressure.

The rejected Anne, however, feels betrayed by her sister and when Mary is laid up with a difficult pregnancy and Anne returns from a sojourn in France with a renewed sexual confidence, the movie becomes a subtle sexual power struggle between the siblings.

As Henry becomes increasingly obsessed with Anne and the affair pushes England into a national and religious crisis, the joy of the movie is Peter Morgan's adaptation, which skillfully pares down Gregory's novel and has all the economy, political shrewdness and gossipy flair of his Oscar-nominated script for "The Queen."

Though the film has precious little epic sweep (and its few CGI set pieces look rather hokey), British director Justin Chadwick (TV's "Bleak House") also manages to nail just about every scene and consistently gets the best from a large cast of quality actors that includes Kristin Scott Thomas, David Morrissey and Jim Sturgess.

Surprisingly, though, the defining element is less the script, the direction or the British veterans than the two young American stars, neither of whom has impressed me very much in the past but display here an amazing depth, breadth, stature and chemistry with one other that makes the movie come alive.