Charlotte Gray (film)
From AwardAnnals
| Film: | Charlotte Gray |
|---|---|
| Director: | Gillian Armstrong |
| Genres: | |
| Distributor: | Warner Home Video |
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Reviews
Amazon.com
Charlotte Gray does little to tarnish Cate Blanchett’s rising-star status but misfires badly as a moralistic World War II drama. The title character of the film, which is based on a popular novel of the same name by Sebastian Faulks, is a young Scottish woman (Blanchett) who has come to London to help with the war effort. After quickly falling in love with a dashing pilot who is summarily shot down in southwest France, the intensely patriotic Charlotte joins a special operations outfit in order to find him. Competent melodrama to this point, the film goes astray from here. Since repeated references are made to Charlotte’s fluent French, it is hard to maintain any suspension of disbelief when she parachutes into Lezignac and we discover that the French resistance fighters she works with speak English with alternately French or British accents (while the Nazis continue to speak German without subtitles). A similarly perfunctory schema of good versus evil among the citizenry is soon laid out as collaborators and patriots are painted with equally simplistic strokes. Blanchett, along with Billy Crudup and Michael Gambon, gives a lively performance despite a shoddy script, but director Gillian Armstrong’s conceits to a mainstream audience seem jumbled and not a little condescending. —Fionn Meade
Barnes and Noble
Chalk up another personal triumph for the versatile Cate Blanchett, whose passionate portrayal of the title character further distinguishes an already exemplary film set during World War II. She’s mesmerizing as the Scottish lass who becomes an undercover courier in hopes of one day finding her lost lover, a pilot shot down behind enemy lines. Parachuting into France, Charlotte attaches herself to a group of freedom fighters whose charismatic leader (Billy Crudup) gradually wins her affection. The day-to-day activities of the French Resistance are recounted in painstaking detail; we see every stone thrown, every shot fired by the ragtag guerrillas whose refusal to acknowledge Nazi supremacy compels them to fight back with every means available. Director Gillian Armstrong (Little Women), in addition to vividly replicating time and place, captures every emotion—fear, desperation, euphoria, triumph—felt by these characters as they strike at the German aggressors. Their struggle becomes very real to us, and for two hours we’re drawn back to that turbulent time, in which love flourished in the face of unimaginable heartache and privation. Blanchett submerges herself completely in the character of Charlotte, and the integrity of her performance goes a long way toward making this movie one of the most memorable wartime dramas of recent years. Armstrong offers commentary on the DVD edition, which also includes cast-crew highlights and theatrical trailers. Ed Hulse
Related works
Charlotte Gray: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
What would inspire a young Scottish woman to parachute into Europe and join the underground French Resistance during World War II’s darkest hours? If we’re to believe this tale, ‘twas simply love for her captured boyfriend. While it boasts another stellar turn by star Cate Blanchett and the promising involvement of Oscar®-winning Shakespeare in Love composer Stephen Warbeck, the latter’s orchestral score ultimately points up a sometimes troubling aspect of film projects: the brooding, subtly dramatic cues that work so well in a film can be a mighty dry…
Charlotte Gray: A Novel
In blacked-out, wartime London, Charlotte Gray develops a dangerous passion for a battle-weary RAF pilot, and when he fails to return from a daring flight into France she is determined to find him. In the service of the Resistance, she travels to the village of Lavaurette, dyeing her hair and changing her name to conceal her identity. Here she will come face-to-face with the harrowing truth of what took place during Europe’s darkest years, and will confront a terrifying secret that threatens to cast its shadow over the remainder of her days.
Vividly rendered, tremendously moving, and with a narrative sweep and power reminiscent of his novel Birdsong, Charlotte Gray confirms Sebastian Faulks as one of the finest novelists working today.
