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Anne; Mary; Henry.
The second film adaptation of the novel, The Other Boleyn Girl shows a dramatized version of the events around Henry VIII's marriage to his first and second wives and his affair with Mary Boleyn. The movie was released in 2008.

The plot revolves around the two Boleyn sisters, Anne (Natalie Portman) and Mary (Scarlett Johansson), competing for the affections of Henry VIII (Eric Bana). Political machinations run rampant in this movie and plots are laid, hatched, destroyed and reborn sometimes within minutes of one another, however for any meager student of history you will inevitably know all the rest of it already.


This Film contains the following Tropes:

  • Adaptation Distillation: The book is almost 700 pages long. The movie has to elide a great deal to fit several years worth of events into two hours of film.
  • Adaptational Nice Guy: Lady Elizabeth Boleyn is more loving towards her daughters than in the original book, and is horrified at what her husband and brother have caused and that they've condemned Anne to death, giving the latter man a sound slap round the face.
  • Adaptational Sexuality: George Boleyn is imagined as Ambiguously Gay, given Ho Yay with some male courtiers and his wife remarking "you never lie with me". The real George Boleyn was a notorious womaniser.
  • Arranged Marriage: Just about every noble in this story has their match arranged by their family because it's the accepted way of doing things, and high level marriages require royal permission. Anne's attempt to have a secret marriage to a man who's already engaged to someone else has to be hushed up to prevent a scandal, and she is punished by being sent off to the French court.
  • Artistic License – History: Oh, God: where to start.
  • As You Know: Frequent oblique references to Prince Arthur, Henry VIII's older brother who was first married to Catherine. Whether he and Catherine consummated their marriage is alluded but not a plot point.
  • Awesome Moment of Crowning: Deconstructed when we briefly see Anne having the crown placed on her head following her marriage to Henry, but her emotional distress from Henry having raped her and blaming her for seducing him away from his wife and the Church makes what should be her moment of triumph feel like a Pyrrhic Victory.
  • Badass Boast: When Catherine of Aragon is being brought to court, she confronts the Boleyn sisters over their betrayal. Anne mocks her, calling Catherine infertile and unworthy of being Henry's wife. Catherine's response?
    Catherine of Aragon: How dare you. You want me to creep away and become a nun? Well I shall not. You want me to lie before God and admit my first marriage was consummated? Well it was not. You want me to retire and give up my daughter's claim as sole rightful heir to the throne? Well I shall not. Not in a thousand years. Not if you rack me to within an inch of my life. I am Catherine, Queen of England! The King's one true wife and mother of the heir to the throne. Beloved of the people, and beloved of a king you have bewitched.
  • Batman Gambit: The Boleyns having their daughter have an affair with the King to gain more political power.
  • Book Ends: The film starts and ends with three children playing in a meadow while their parents watch over them; Mary, Anne and George at the beginning, and Mary's children and Anne's daughter Elizabeth at the end.
  • Break the Cutie: Both sisters get their share, first Mary, then Anne. Mostly Mary, who's completely heartbroken (hinting that Stafford is her rebound guy and that the King's rejection makes her feel so dejected she doesn't think she deserves any better than her former servant).
  • Calling the Old Man Out: Elizabeth Boleyn (née Howard) calls out both her brother — who receives a rather loud and probably painful slap — and her husband for Anne's fate. She's probably (read: "completely and absolutely most definitely") right.
  • Composite Character: George was one of seven men Anne was accused of having adultery with. The film just has George being accused.
  • English Rose: The Tudor beauty Mary makes an impression on the king.
    Henry: You don't think he'll miss court? A young ambitious man.
    Mary: He says not, Your Majesty. But if he ever changed his mind...as his wife, of course, I would do his bidding.
  • The Exile: Anne is exiled to France after she marries against her family's will, subverted in that she uses the opportunity to learn how to seduce royalty while there.
  • Florence Nightingale Effect: Mary taking care of Henry after he takes a spill while horse riding on the Boleyn estate, she takes care of him, and this takes effect.
  • Gory Discretion Shot: When the beheadings are shown, the camera cuts away the moment before the blow connects. We just see the reaction of the crowd as we hear the blade chop and the head thud to the ground.
  • Gorgeous Period Dress: 16th century Royal English Court attire is represented in all its voluminous glory.
  • Happily Ever After: The "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue says that Mary and Stafford lived happily as a couple after the events of the film. This is a bit tidier than real life in which Mary died rather young (as many did), barely nine years into her marriage. Stafford outlived her and had six more children with his second cousin Dorothy, whom he married two years after Mary's death. Mary's children with Stafford, if they survived, are unknown to history.
  • Happily Married: Mary and Stafford are the only couple that end up happy in the long term, since in every other relationship either the love goes away or the partners get separated by circumstance.
  • Hate Sink:
    • Jane Parker is an unpleasant shrew who ends up getting George executed.
    • The Duke of Norfolk too! He was the reason Anne and Mary were entrapped into the scheme in the first place, but he also voted for her death! The slap he gets from his sister is well deserved!
  • Historical Beauty Upgrade:
    • Catherine of Aragon looks much better in the film than she was reported to in real life. While she was very beautiful in her youth, her seven pregnancies took a massive toll on her. Her figure was reportedly ruined by the time she was forty and her auburn hair had faded to grey.
    • Anne herself was described by one of her friends as being "good-looking enough," which means she probably wasn't very attractive by the standards of the day, where fair women were the ideal, Anne was olive skinned with dark Brown hair, a very skinny figure and flat-chested. Most contemporary accounts agree that it was more her personality that people found interesting over physical attractiveness. As with every fictional portrayal, Anne is much more beautiful than in real life since she's played by Natalie Portman, a Ms. Fanservice actress who has dressed up in skimpy clothing for some of her previous roles and was even outright naked in the short film Hotel Chevalier.
  • Heir Club for Men: Henry is anxious to produce a male heir in order to protect his dynasty and avert civil war, since a girl is not considered strong enough to hold power. The historical events of this movie inspired the Trope Namer.
  • Historical Relationship Overhaul:
    • There is zero evidence that either of Mary's children were Henry's, and in fact it's extremely unlikely they were as Henry was known to never sleep with married women.
    • Mary Boleyn did not take in and raise the future Queen Elizabeth as the movie suggests; in fact, they never met after Mary was banished.
  • Hot Consort: After Anne came home from France, the king found her so seductive (hot) that he was willing to risk everything to make her his queen (consort). After he married her he lost interest though.
  • Hollywood History: The only way to tell this tale in a two hour film is to simplify and condense something that was more complicated in real life.
  • Light Feminine and Dark Feminine: Mary is the light and Anne is the dark.
  • Love Dodecahedron: Who wants to get with who is quite complicated, because everyone seemingly loves someone they shouldn't, wants to sleep their way to the top, and/or keeps changing their minds. Catherine of Aragon wants to keep her husband, but Henry is looking for a new woman and initially settles on Mary. Mary likes her first husband William Carrey and doesn't want to go to bed with Henry, but after they do she changes her mind and falls in love with Henry. Anne seduces Henry away from Mary, so now both Mary and Catherine are left unrequited. Then Henry gets tired of Anne and starts going out with Jane Seymour, etc.
  • Marry for Love: Stafford proposes to Mary later in the film, promising that he will never betray her or take her for granted. In the end she accepts, and the "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue tells us they were Happily Married ever after.
  • The Mistress: Mary Boleyn becomes Henry's mistress, sleeping with him and bearing his child out of wedlock while he is still married to Catherine of Aragon. Anne, in contrast, refuses to become Henry's mistress and insists on him divorcing his wife and marrying her before she will sleep with him.
  • Off with His Head!: George Boleyn and Anne Boleyn are beheaded at the Tower of London for incest and treason. George gets the axe, while Anne gets a swordsman from France as one last courtesy.
  • Parental Marriage Veto: Anne's parents and uncle refuse to recognize Anne's marriage to Henry Percy because it will create a scandal and get them in hot water with the king. Even though they were married before a priest and consummated the union, they are forced to cover it up and pretend it never happened.
  • Pimped-Out Dress: All the court ladies wear fancy dresses with fine tailoring, silk, brocade, embroidery, pearls, the whole shebang.
  • Pretty in Mink: The nobility shows off its glamour and wealth with lots of luxurious fur. Anne wears a mantle of ermine to the scaffold.
  • Rape as Drama: By the time he obtains a divorce from Catherine of Aragon, Henry is impatient for Anne to give herself to him, especially because he blames her for egging him on to leave his wife and the Church. When Anne again refuses to go all the way until they're married, he flies into a rage and violently rapes her.
  • "Reason You Suck" Speech: Before she enters her trial, Catherine of Aragon chews out both Boleyn sisters for being sluts and backstabbers, reminding them that she is the true Queen of England.
  • Requisite Royal Regalia: One of the shots in the movie, that was also shown often in promotional material, was Anne in her coronation clothing.
  • Right Through His Pants: The rape scene occurs with both of them fully clothed, and without taking even half a second to remove the many, many layers that would have been in the way.
  • Screw the Rules, I Make Them!: As Elizabeth Boleyn reminds her husband, the king can execute anyone he wants on whatever trumped up charges he likes.
    Elizabeth Boleyn: Treason? What is treason? Anything the king or his lawyers decide it to be. On a whim.
  • Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Mary does this as soon as she can — she marries William and is banished and then never looks back.
  • Settle for Sibling: William Carey originally wishes to marry Anne, but her father gives him Mary instead, as he thinks Anne can do better.
  • Stock Footage: A shot of Natalie Portman's character holding a newborn baby from this film was used in the Revenge of the Sith fanedit Labyrinth of Evil to depict Padme surviving and holding her newborn daughter Leia on Alderaan.
  • "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue: For those that don't know this already, the Epilogue presents us with vignettes of the various characters, informing us in the captions that Thomas Boleyn died in disgrace, Thomas Howard was put in the Tower for treason and the next three generations of his family were executed, Mary lived happily in the country with Stafford, and Elizabeth grew up to reign as queen for 45 years.
  • Women Are Wiser: Averted with Anne, whose pride and ambition end up overriding her cleverness, but played straight with most of the other female characters: Mary Boleyn, Lady Elizabeth Boleyn, and Catherine of Aragon all take turns calling out Anne and the male characters on the very dangerous game they're playing.

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