On so many levels the trailer for The Other Boleyn Girl - a period piece about sisters fighting for the love of King Henry VIII - just doesn’t work.

Regardless of time period, a movie about a love triangle needs to crackle with sexual tension. Judging by this trailer, it seems like Boleyn Girl has barely managed to fizzle. If any feelings of passion between Eric Bana and his co-stars Natalie Portman and Scarlett Johansson managed to find their way into the film then they aren’t on display here. The whole preview reeks of made-for-TV quality and it’s got only slightly more vigor than an average BBC melodrama.

To make such an un-enticing trailer for a movie that features two of the most beautiful young actresses working today must have been difficult. While Portman comes off as at least passable, Johansson’s performance plays as painfully restrained. It seems as though director Justin Chadwick told her to tone down the sexual-icon image she is slowly cultivating to the point of making her totally bland. This is a miscalculation considering Johansson has played the quiet girl full of muted sexual longing before to great effect in Lost in Translation.

Unfortunately, Bana doesn’t come off much better. The combination of banal lines and a distracting assortment of feathered caps are more than enough to compromise his talents. In all fairness, Bana’s subtle acting style feels out of place here. His role seems much more suited towards scene-chewing British actors like Jeremy Irons. Bana is a talented actor, but after the disappointing Hulk and Lucky You it seems he picked another project that just doesn’t suit him.

Boleyn Girl’s lame footage isn’t helped much by a stilted voice-over that begins with the clichéd opening line “In an age when…” and goes downhill from there. Also serving to further detract from an already un-compelling set of clips is a labored editing pace. The trailer awkwardly treks along, trying in vain to hit compelling story beats as a derivative score swells in the background struggling to compensate.

Boleyn Girl may have already been fighting an uphill battle without the detriment of a weak trailer. 2006’s Marie Antoinette, which starred Kirsten Dunst, proved that younger, more-appealing stars won’t necessarily bring in big audiences for historically-based flicks. Yet at least Antoinette’s trailer had a spark of creativity to it, which is more than can be said about The Other Boleyn Girl.

LINK TO TRAILER USED IN THIS REVIEW:
http://movies.aol.com/movie/the-other-boleyn-girl/26713/video/trailer-no-1/2023586

The Other Boleyn Girl
Release Date: February 29th, 2008
Starring: Eric Bana, Natalie Portman, Scarlett Johansson
Directed By: Justin Chadwick