Yawn. Poorly Filmed Snooze Fest.

Brilliant and touching

A Disappointing Continuation

It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

I am not denying Charlotte Grey doesn't have flaws, it does, but I for one do not think it is a bad movie. In fact I think it is pretty good. I agree the story is unbelievable on the most part, and the script is really quite poor in spots and the film does drag in the middle. However, the cinematography, costumes, sets, scenery and locations are immaculate and the music is haunting and beautiful and the growing attraction between Charlotte and Julien avoids the trap of being too sappy. The direction is decent enough too, while the acting is good particularly from Cate Blanchett who is very classy and determined and I liked Michael Gambon and Billy Crudup too. Overall, it is a pretty good film. 7/10 Bethany Cox

The story of The French Resistance is rarely told. When French cinema did tackle their national shame, the results were oblique, bold, and often the most honest films made about the war. Charlotte Gray is the opposite. It is a dime-store romance novella which uses occupied France as a backdrop. A script and basis which are stultifyingly hypocritical; The heroine (Cate Blanchett) establishing early that the occupation of France is nothing to joke about, then proceeding to trivialise it all in a quest to find her boyfriend. Australian director Gillian Armstrong dispenses with authenticity, and other cumbersome aspects that would hinder her making a popcorn time waster. In other words, she didn't even bother to rent Army of Shadows or Le Corbeau the night before principal photography began.Grey is not a particularly enjoyable chick-flick either. The faults should be bleedin' obvious, but I will outline those of grating annoyance:The Accent ProblemThe story rests on Charlotte being fluent in French. Blanchett was more than willing to learn French for the part, but Armstrong didn't think that a few months of French lessons would be entirely convincing (or had no faith in Blanchett abilities). Her solution? Have Cate speak in a Scotch accent while in England, then affect an English accent while in France. Er... more convincing? Other actors in the French scenes have accents all over the shop, but then why should a film with such a serious subject matter be realistic?The Romance(s)A woman who risks her life, and the lives of others for her own half-baked affair, is a complete flake. Shortly after consummating her relationship with a dashing pilot (whom poses as though for a Biggles cover) he is shot down over enemy territory. The woman embarks on a what would seem like a noble quest to aid The French Resistance, but is actually a way for her to track down her square-jawed love interest. Her bumbling during a first mission gets another woman killed, and doesn't make her at all sympathetic (if all her hypocritical sanctimony at the beginning didn't already). She almost immediately starts peppering a romance with a Frenchman, making the "I will follow you to the ends of the Earth" love between her and Biggles a sad joke. Neither romance is realistic or enjoyable, to the point where you want to see Charlotte lose both.The EndingShe doesn't lose both, in fact despite all her offensive nonsense throughout the film, she finds and rejects Biggles in peace time, in favour of melodramatic Frenchie! A departure from the book, apparently, and every chick-flick ever made. A slap in the face and a waste of time.

I know this is a serious board devoted to the merits of the movie... but I would like to just mention the fact that rarely does an actor have the effect on me that Billy Crudup did in this film. Oh my god what a beauty! Perfect in every way... And obviously extremely talented, made more perfect by his professional choices!So, the film. Well, as a (some time ago) graduate of military history, with a particular interest in the sociological effects of war I have a special fondness for stories like this. I sought out the book and devoured it. I loved it, absolutely, as I do pretty much everything else by Sebastian Faulks. I also enjoyed this film immensely, but as a separate entity. A film is generally incapable of reaching the depths your imagination can take you to through reading a truly great book, maybe people should spend more time reading! I don't agree with the mauling this film was given by the critics, it kept me engaged from beginning to end and the happy ending, although a little trite, is a smile worthy event!Sod the dodgy Scottish, Kate Blanchet was believable as far as I'm concerned. Billy was perfect, as I think I might have mentioned! Michael Gambon - always worth watching and the chap that played the teacher was sufficiently creepy from first sight. The boys were sympathetic without being irritating child actors and the atmosphere was intimidating.It was emotional without being over the top, the relationship between the leads was wonderfully portrayed and I feel it was a valuable description of the horrific situation of collaboration.Not the best film I've ever seen but I definitely enjoyed it. And I'm not sure if you've noticed, and I don't like to bring it up, but Billy Crudup is a god among men.Watch it with an open mind.

After her one night stand with a bomber pilot whom she immediately falls in love with, Charlotte Gray (Cate Blanchette), a young Scotswoman who speaks perfect French, agrees to be parachuted into Vichy France as liaison with the French underground because her boyfriend has been shot down, and she hopes somehow to find him. Most of the film takes place, however, in and around the small French town where Charlotte has landed. With her principal contact in the underground, Julien Levade (Billy Crudup) and his colleagues, Charlotte participates in blowing up a German train headed South with a load of tanks and other military equipment. The Nazis promptly occupy the town. Charlotte, meanwhile, has been sent to live with Julien's father (Michael Gambon) and to take care of two Jewish children whose parents were rounded up and dispatched to a work camp and presumably to their deaths. Eventually the children are found and Levade is determined to be a Jew (though he is not) and likewise sent away with the children. Julien claims that he too is Jewish but that assertion is waved away by the authorities on grounds that he could only be one-eighth Jewish and not therefore subject to the race laws. Soon we are back in England where Charlotte is reunited with her pilot boyfriend, who has turned up alive though believed dead, but Charlotte rejects him and returns to France after the way to find Julien with whom she has fallen in love. Perhaps it is explained in the book, but the film does not provide any real basis for understanding Charlotte's decision to abandon her pilot and return to her companion in the underground with whom the only kiss and cuddle she exchanged while the two were attempting to annoy and ultimately overpower the Nazi soldier who is guarding them. Blanchette, Crudup and Gambon are excellent actors, and Gillian Armstrong is quite an accomplished director. But variations on this plot have been screened on a dozen occasions, and this one leaves unexplained gaps, only one of which I've cited. It is worth seeing, provided you don't expect too much.