CHARLOTTE GRAY is directed by Gillian Armstrong (MRS. SOFFEL, OSCAR AND LUCINDA) with her signature recipe for success--a love story set in beautiful scenery played by an all-star cast. Here, Charlotte Gray (Cate Blanchett) is a Scottish woman in mid-WWII, living with an adventuresome pair of young female roommates. While .. Read more
| Starring | Cate Blanchett, Billy Crudup, Michael Gambon, Rupert Penry-Jones |
|---|---|
| Director | Gillian Armstrong |
| Genres | Drama, Romance |
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CHARLOTTE GRAY is directed by Gillian Armstrong (MRS. SOFFEL, OSCAR AND LUCINDA) with her signature recipe for success--a love story set in beautiful scenery played by an all-star cast. Here, Charlotte Gray (Cate Blanchett) is a Scottish woman in mid-WWII, living with an adventuresome pair of young female roommates. While attending a snooty book publishing party, Charlotte escapes from her girlfriends long enough to meet a British pilot, Peter (Rupert Penry-Jones), with whom she falls in love. After a brief but passionate affair, Peter is sent on a mission to Nazi-occupied France where his plane is shot down and he is reported M.I.A. Torn apart by love, Charlotte enlists herself as an underground operative in the resistance and accepts a mission to rural France. Charlotte, now working under the code name Dominique, parachutes out of an airplane, and captures two young Jewish boys in her net. The man who untangles the bunch, Julien (Billy Crudup), becomes her one trusted contact, and arranges a job for her as governess to the two boys, hiding out in the chateau owned by his curmudgeonly father (Michael Gambon).
Presenting a beautiful love story complicated by WWII tension, Armstrong creates a photographically impeccable film with a strong orchestral score and a capable, utterly attractive cast. CHARLOTTE GRAY is based on the best-selling novel by Sebastian Faulks.
| Starring | Cate Blanchett, Billy Crudup, Michael Gambon, Rupert Penry-Jones, Anton Lesser, James Fleet |
|---|---|
| Director | Gillian Armstrong |
| Studio | FILM 4 |
| Run time | DVD: 1 hr 56 mins |
| Certificate | |
| Genres | Drama, Romance |
| Language | DVD: English |
| Hearing-impaired | English |
| Released | DVD: 07 Oct 2002 Production year: 2001 |
| Format | DVD |
In this adaptation of Sebastian Faulks's bestselling novel, Cate Blanchett stars as the eponymous wartime agent, a Scotswoman who parachutes into occupied France in pursuit of her missing lover, pilot Rupert Penry-Jones. On the ground she meets up with attractive Resistance contact Billy Crudup and joins his unit on dangerous sabotage missions. The problem with this rather unconvincing portrait of wartime derring-do is that Blanchett appears to be merely along for the ride rather than an active, or even qualified, participant. The emphasis here is on romance — Gray's RAF lover, her growing attraction to Crudup — and it doesn't sit well beside her supposed status as a plucky wartime agent or justify her presence in such perilous territory. Blanchett is as classy and determined as ever, but her committed performance is let down by the unlikely story.
Curiously leaden adaptation of a best-selling novel, stressing Blanchett's glamour and with its cast speaking English with funny French accents, so emphasising the unreality of it all.
This was an outstanding film that had me completely hooked. The quality of the photography was especially mesmerising. The film got the tension of life in wartime France to a 'T'.
Great Movie well worth watching