Sunday Best: Actress 2008

Natalie Portman - The Other Boleyn Girl

photo by gdcgraphics

The first half of The Other Boleyn Girl does little to reveal the depths and talents found in Portman's performance as the ill-fated Anne Boleyn. At first I mistook her take on the character to be simply a selfish seductress, twisted by jealousy of her sister into a vain and vapid manipulator. She steals the love that Henry has for her sister Mary by driving him insane with lust for her, so that his desires overwhelms his affections. But the story shows us that Henry is not a man of reason, but of pure desire. He cannot be reasoned with or bargained with. He is a force of nature. Anne awoke a sleeping giant in Henry and she gets swallowed up in her own web of deceit. She is a puppeteer who strangles on the strings. Watching Portman transform from confident aggressor to terrified victim was moving. She made Anne so sympathetic towards the end that you forgave her past wrongs for the pity you now felt. For this reason Portman again proved that she was one of the finest actresses of her age.

RUNNERS UP

-Diane Lane: Nights in Rodanthe

-Katherine Heigel: 27 Dresses

-Mila Kunis -Forgetting Sarah Marshal