After his friend and mentor Cardinal Wolsey (Jonathan Pryce)
is conspiratorially destroyed for failing to procure a divorce for Henry VIII
(Damian Lewis), Thomas Cromwell (Mark Rylance), who began life as a blacksmith’s
son, maneuvers his way onto the king’s court and plays a deadly game of
intrigue and revenge. Drawn from two books in a Cromwell trilogy by Hilary
Mantel, Wolf Hall is a measured and
involving BBC miniseries with exemplary costumes and set design. Rylance, a study in understatement, is
outstanding and it is nice to watch Lewis playing
against type, here an impotent, sympathetic Henry VII who is beginning to
reveal the seeds of madness. As Anne Boleyn, Claire Foy is commanding.
*** 1/2 out of ****
