#but srsly 2003 style is the best

[solangelo-o]

pls i need 2003 fanart

[cinemaocd]

Jared Harris made me watch The Other Boleyn Girl (2003)

and I have thoughts

Most of my thoughts are just keyboard smashing about how fucking ridiculously attractive Jared’s Henry is. Like SRSLY. SEND HALP.

But beyond that, this is a actually not as terrible as I thought it would be, mainly because good actors can sell you anything, I swear. It’s not just Jared that is great, the whole cast is actually really excellent and they all deserve better, frankly.

While I have not read the book, I have read a couple other Philippa Gregory novels and I don’t like her writing that much. And the fact that she presents herself as a historian is kind of laughable to be honest.

Having said that, there is a part of me, the part that likes to write plot, and the part of me that enjoys new twists or takes on an old theme that is admiring of the sheer balls it takes for her to make a novel out of these particular headcanons. I doff my cap to her for that.

In future whenever I am tempted to scale back an idea because it’s too OUT THERE I will remember that Philippa Gregory looked at the incest charges and went: Well what if Mary was really in love with Henry, and Anne slept with Harry Pearcy and Mary told her parents, so Anne decided to steal Henry for revenge. And then what if after having a girl and Henry stepping out on her Mary suggested that Anne FUCK HER BROTHER in order to get pregnant because he was the only man she was allowed to be alone with without being chaperoned...I mean she WENT there. It’s breathtaking levels of cheek, honestly.

But parts of it kind of make sense in a weird character-ish way, and I’m not mad at it.

I really am not crazy about the “shakey cam” video blog style of the film. I have always thought a Wolf Hall/The Office parody would be hilarious so actually trying to do a serious version of that is kind of weird. But it does have the advantage of making the scenes all feel very intimate and it means that Jared Harris gets to do loads of Husky Whispering and let me tell you I’m there for that.

Oh did I mention that we see Jared’s ass in this film. Hot Buns indeed, sir.

I will never, ever watch the film version though because I can’t stand the idea of Rylance as Thomas Boleyn. So I guess I know what TOBG is about now and that’s fine.

I’m not going to even try to list the historical inaccuracies in the film. Gregory’s interpretation of the events, is at best Canon Adjacent, but mostly it’s just an AU. There are plenty of places where the scant amount we know about Mary and Anne directly contradicts her interpretation. She just handwaves those things away. Which is fine in fiction. As long as you don’t go around presenting yourself as a historian...

Gregory’s take on Crom is pretty terrible, and very much of a piece with how he was portrayed in media, prior to Wolf Hall so, I’m not going to get too bent out of shape about it. There is a cool scene where Anne just shouts, “My man Thomas Cromwell” and I was like OMG #Relatable.

Gregory’s take on Anne is really, really extreme, I think. I’m no Anne Boleyn stan by any means, but it just seemed over the top in terms of sheer bitchiness and malevolence toward Mary. She makes Hilary Mantel seem almost balanced by comparison.