Nowadays, in a film, whenever you see children running through wheat fields giggling, you know things aren't going to end well for them. That's how this picture opens, two sisters and a brother blissfully in love with life and their family. Despite a mother who claims a woman's job is to allow the man to think he's in charge, the father really is in charge. His decisions pit his heretofore pure innocent daughters against each other in their efforts to land themselves a king.

One of them stays sweet, the other mushrooms into a master manipulator. And thus the soap. Nearly every line of dialogue uttered in this film focuses only on how one character relates or hopes to relate to another. A game of love, lust, power, manipulation. I wanted more from the film. I want to know the characters aside from their rather single-minded aims toward one another. But the film has nothing at all to show us toward that goal. What kind of King was Henry? Was he a strong leader? Was he liked by the people? Did he get involved in politics? Was he a puppet? There is nothing at all about this king aside from his interest in a little action on the side and a male heir. Completely, nothing. And what about Anne and Mary? I was given very little reason to care about any of these paper-thin figures, despite the highly-respectable cast. And despite everyone saying how Anne had changed, I not only didn't see a marked change, the picture didn't show that change taking place. On the positive side…

… the actress playing Queen Katherine (who's not listed in the production notes) gives a powerful emotive speech during the second half of the film. It's the rare moment when the film made me feel something, amidst the mild curiosity about how the gossipy details were to work out. The score's pretty good, the editing rather crisp, cinematography sweet and certain elements of the costuming elegant.

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