SAVE YOUR MONEY (Charlotte Gray (DVD))

Member Name: snappy

Product:	Charlotte Gray (DVD)
Date:	13/03/02 (68 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: good character performances, nice scenery

Disadvantages: flimsy story done many times before

Routine, Run-of-the-mill and Unoriginal - there you are, in a nutshell, my review of Cate Blanchett's latest offering - the Wartime romance 'Charlotte Gray.

We've certainly seen a lot of the talented antipodean recently. Here in the UK we saw BANDITS released in November, where she co-starred with Bruce Willis. That was closely followed by LORD OF THE RINGS, in which she played - albeit briefly - Galadriel. Soon to be on our screens is the much vaunted SHIPPING NEWS, where we see Cate playing opposite Kevin Spacey.

This current outing, however, sees her take on the role of Charlotte Gray, the eponymous heroine of Sebastian Faulk's romantic novel. But, however fine an actress Ms Blanchett undoubtedly is actress (the nearest thing in the current day to Meryl Streep), she is unable to lift this predictable yarn of wartime romance above the level of 'We've seen it all before'.

Charlotte meets handsome RAF Pilot, Peter (Rupert Penry-Jones ) and the two become lovers. His plane goes down on a mission over Nazi occupied France. As a fluent French speaker, Charlotte is recruited as a spy and she hopes that she may be able to find her missing lover. But remember it's wartorn Vichy France and things don't go according to plan.

She meets up with a local resistance group and acts as liaison between them and another British spy. She gradually comes to realise that she will not find Peter and grows deeply attracted to Julien Levade, the swarthy communist inclined, local Resistence leader played by Billy Crudup. Ever stolid Michael Gambon - he of the extremely 'lived in' face, plays Julian's father. He's a real pillar of the local community and someone who would really like to just live out the war, Levade Senior hates the Nazis and helps shelter a couple of Jewish children. This part of the storyline is quite poignant and is probably the main redeeming feature of the movie as we see the chil
dren as helpless pawns in an evil game.

The action - or what there is of it - is achingly slow. You find yourself thinking "what is the point of all this" and "where is it all leading".

It all seemed pretty familiar ground, trodden a hundred times before in so many movies. In fact it would have been a nice touch to have introduced a bit of light relief akin to the cast of 'Allo Allo' turning up at some point.

It's directed well enough by Gillian Armstrong, but it's the story that is not strong enough, there is certainly enough talent in the cast as you cannot fault the performances of Blanchett, Crudup and Gambon. I'm afraid that this movie is worthy enough and might be recommened to those of you who get 'horny' reading a Mills and Boon, but honestly it is not the kind of movie that lives long in the memory.

I would compare this a little with last year's "Captain Corelli's Mandolin", which I thoroughly enjoyed and is certainly a cut above this film. Both have great scenery and a good looking couple as the movie's focal point, who get romantically entwined during wartime. You will also notice an incredible similarity in the endings of both movies.

? My advice - get Captain Corelli out on DVD and save the entrance fee on Charlotte Gray.

Summary: