I purchased the movie being interested in all of the Tudor history and because it is to my knowledge the only movie made about the life of Mary Tudor. What a GIANT disappointment. The movie made in the style of a documentary has the feel of being put together by some experimenting high school students. Acting is non existent, the dialog stilted and often unintentionally funny. Camera work is fuzzy, shot into the light, so it is impossible to see anything but shadows (artsy??), not to mention the same repeated shots of meadows, deers, bunnies,trees and running blood - really TACKY! I knew that this was low budget, but come on - PBS has a lot of British productions that are on the lower budget end, nevertheless excellent. Mary turns from an adorable teenager into a 50+ looking woman, when in reality she was about 30 at her brothers Edwards death. By the way her eyes turn from light green as a child to a deep brown as a teenager - is this a miracle or did they run out of brown eyed children? Henry VIII stereo typed as a fat old tyrant, when he actually was quite young when he divorced Katherine. The main players at the court of Henry VIII are hardly mentioned although they played a big role in Mary's life and were indeed the cause of her bitterness. There is not really any explanation for her cruelty, other than her fanatic catholicism, upbringing and failed marriage. Instead of exploring her character in depth her actions seem to be based more on revenge than anything else. The filmmakers underline this by showing her expressions toward the end depicted more and more as an evil witch. Don't waste your money and time on this piece of trash! I hope in time a good movie will be made about "bloody Mary" exploring the woman behind the evil mask.
Review of The Twisted Tale of Bloody Mary
