he formula about King Henry VIII and his wives has been one of the most overworked storylines of all historical subjects (even last year we had the first season of The Tudors, on Showtime). And now we have yet another one. The Other Boleyn Girl, adapted from Philippa Gregory's 2001 novel of the same name, takes a slightly darker view of Anne Boleyn, mistress and eventually second wife of England's King Henry VIII.

It's a fine period piece, but a major motion picture that has the misfortune of coming at the tail end of the more sexy and provocative Showtime series that covers almost exactly the same material. The resulting effect, though impressively big budget, feels clumsy and contrived.

The clever first hour introduces us to the scheming Boleyn clan; Mary Boleyn (Scarlett Johansson), the younger sister, is married off to a wealthy merchant's son, while the tempestuous Anne Boleyn (Natalie Portman), the older one, is yet to be married off. It seems their socially ambitious father, Sir Thomas Boleyn (Rylance) seeks to marry off the nasty social climber. It is the scheming uncle, the Duke of Norfolk (David Morrissey) who wants to set Anne up with Henry VIII (Eric Bana), whose current wife, Catherine of Aragon (Torrent), has been unable to provide him with a male heir. If this all works out, he'll take her as a mistress and make the family a fortune.

But of course when the dull-witted king visits the Boleyn estate, he falls not for Anne but her younger sister, Mary, who is happily married, has no interest in being the king's mistress. Anne is furious, and schemes to get Henry - which leads to her to be exiled to France as punishment. But Anne’s foreign stay is brief, and returns educated, sharp-tongued and more ambitious than ever.