Charlotte Gray (2001)

Charlotte Gray is beautifully filmed, but I found the story somewhat disjointed. She is asked to go to France before her boyfriend is shot down, so her first reason for going is not because she is looking for him. They fall "in love" after a one-night stand? So typical of Hollywood. The man heading the cell in France says he is a Communist; he never says the group is communist. Even so, another incident of Hollywood making the communists look like the good guys, when in fact, Communism is even more harsh than Nazism or Fascism (count the number of people killed by each regime). The dialogue was hard to hear in parts of the movie, as it was too softly spoken (audio editor problem). There are some heart-wrenching scenes and one does get the feel of occupied France. I didn't understand why she had to dye her hair---undercover men do not do so, and it was probably hard to obtain hair color during the war. Then at the end of the movie, her hair is an in-between color: not her normal blonde as in the beginning, nor the dark brunette of her resistance days.

I was able to see this via Netflix streaming video.Near the beginning of WW2, Cate Blanchett is fictional Scot Charlotte Gray. She happens to meet James Fleet as Richard Cannerly, a RAF pilot, and it is love at first sight. But they soon are separated when he goes to fly in France, and is soon shot down and missing.Charlotte is fluent in French and volunteers to train for an undercover resistance mission in France, she says because of her patriotic duty. But she really is going in some way to find and save the pilot. If he is even still alive.Among the dozens she encounters is Billy Crudup as French Communist Julien Levade, who makes a lot of noise, helps the resistance, and always narrowly avoids being arrested or shot. He and Charlotte have mostly a dislike for one-another, but as often happens in this type of story changes over time. Also good is Michael Gambon as Levade, Julian's father with a large home in the country, and who also happens to be providing shelter for two Jewish boys whose parents have been taken away. Overall not a terribly good story, which settles eventually in a love triangle, but it is interesting to see how that period in France is portrayed, an uneasy peace between the Germans occupying north France, the south of France still controlled by the French.SPOILERS: Charlotte never finds her pilot, the Jewish boys are trucked away, as well as the old man for having Jewish grandparents. When Charlotte safely returns to London, her pilot eventually shows up too. He is eager to take up where they left off, but war has changed her. When peace breaks out and the war is over, she returns to France to find Julien, identifies her real name, and they embrace.

I had seen the poster for this film many times, I even had it up in one of my school classes, and I heard more about the war aspect, it was just a matter of watching it, from director Gillian Armstrong (Little Women). Basically, set in World War II, young Scottish woman Charlotte Gray (Cate Blanchett) has been studying in France and lives in London, and within weeks has fallen in love with a young pilot. She becomes recruited by the Secret Service as essentially a spy for the French Resistance, but when her lover gets shot down her mission becomes behind enemy lines becomes much more personal. Charlotte is assigned to join Levade (Sir Michael Gambon) and a Communist Resistance group where she encounters people betraying from sources sometimes unexpected, but Charlotte struggles and triumphs through all the violence and wartime horror with hope. Also starring Billy Crudup as Julien Levade, Rupert Penry-Jones as Peter Gregory, Anton Lesser as Renech, The Vicar of Dibley's James Fleet as Richard Cannerly, Ron Cook as Mirabel, Jack Shepherd as Pichon, Nicholas Farrell as Mr. Jackson and Spoons' Tom Goodman-Hill as Business Man at Party. Blanchett might have a slightly peculiar accent, but she gives a reasonable performance, but the big problem is the story, it is all over the place and far too predictable, so overall I found it a rather dull and boring Second World War romantic drama. Adequate!

Okay, you know going in that it's yet another film about a female agent liaising with the Resistance in Occupied France during World War Two, some viewers may even have read the (undeservedly) best-selling novel on which it was based, but you go anyway, maybe you admire Cate Blanchett and I've no quarrel with that, she's a fine actress, maybe you like 'period' movies, again you won't hear a squawk out of me, in fact those two reasons were what prompted me. It's a good movie - well, it's not a BAD movie, but perhaps in this case the opposite of bad is NOT good. An indifferent movie is nearer the truth. Within the last couple of years an English newspaper gave away a series of dvds set in WWII one of which was Carve Her Name With Pride which covers much of the same ground except that it was about a REAL Resistance worker, Violette Szabo, who failed to survive the war unlike the fictional Gray; Carve Her Name, made in black and white is light years better than the Technicolored Charlotte Gray, Blanchett's fine performance notwithstanding. As long as we're making comparisons I also disagree with the person who unaccountably rated this movie higher than Claude Berri's Lucie Aubrac but then difference of opinion is what makes horse races.