I loved the book by Phillipa Gregory. I was so excited when I heard they were making it into a movie - and with such wonderful actors... well, I can't even begin to describe how disappointed I was.<br /><br />The movie is absolutely nothing like the book. The whole tone of the story is changed! The actors weren't bad. Natalie Portman actually gave a wonderfully commanding performance. But I could not get beyond the comparison of movie vs. book. And the movie was just simply awful. It was extremely boring at times and left out parts of the story - like what happened with Mary's husband? I know from the book that he died of illness, but that was never addressed in the movie.<br /><br />Bottom line: this movie should not even share the same title as the book. If you read the book you will be disappointed in the movie.