Let's be realistic.

Just intense enough to provide a much-needed diversion, just lightweight enough to make you forget about it soon after it’s over. It’s not exactly “good,” per se, but it does what it sets out to do in terms of putting us on edge, which makes it … successful?

Close shines in drama with strong language, adult themes.

There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

Sophie Marceau leads an excellent cast in this gripping movie.Based on true events it begins in 1944, a group of French servicewomen and resistance fighters are enlisted into the British Special Operations Executive commando group under the command of Louise Desfontaines and her brother Pierre.Their mission, to rescue a British army geologist caught reconnoitering the beaches at Normandy, and to kill a German SS colonel who is close to figuring out the imminent secret of D-Day, proves to be emotional and brutal.The film moves at a good pace and is so well acted you feel for the characters.

I enjoy movies like this where the characters are speaking their own language. For example i really like the German language version of Das Boot. However the historical blunders spoiled the movie for me. If the Geologist had been in possession of such detailed information of the mulberry harbour units he would have been "BIGOT" listed and would never have been allowed out of England to make the survey. Then the use of a C47 for dropping agents was not done. It would have been a Lancaster or other bomber converted to drop agents. The date of the mission means that invasion stripes would not have been on any aircraft. the order to paint invasion stripes did not go out until June 3rd. Apart from one squadron of Mustangs. If a silenced pistol had been needed a single shot Welrod would have been used not the automatic one that the character used in the movie. overall a good shoot em up for a rainy afternoon but spoiled by the inaccuracies.

In 1944, in London, Lieutenant Pierre Desfontaines (Julien Boisselier) assigns his sister Louise Desfontaines (Sophie Marceau) to convince three other women to form a five-woman task force under his command to rescue a British geologist from a German hospital in the countryside of France. The geologist was assigned by Colonel Maurice Buckmaster (Colin David Reese) in a reconnaissance mission of the soil of the beaches at Normandy for the D-Day and had been captured by the Germans. Louise and Pierre force the whore Jeanne Faussier (Julie Depardieu) that is imprisoned for murdering her pimp; the explosives expert Gaëlle Lemenech (Déborah François) that misses action; and the former dancer and fiancé of Colonel Karl Heindrich (Moritz Bleibtreu), Suzy Desprez (Marie Gillain) using blackmail and unethical methods to fly to France and join the Italian agent Maria Luzzato (Maya Sansa) in the assignment. They are well-succeeded but when they deliver the geologist to the British airplane, Pierre betrays the group and does not allow the women to fly back to London. He forces them to travel to Paris to kill Colonel Heindrich that suspects that the landing of the allied forces will be through the Normandy, in a dangerous mission. "Les Femmes de l'Ombre" is a sort of French Inglorious "Female" Bastards. The plot recalls the 1978 Italian film "Quel Maledetto Treno Blindato" a.k.a. "Inglorious Bastards", with three rogue women assigned to a very dangerous mission in occupied France. The plot is absurd but entertains, with the women having one-day training and parachuting in the night and attacking a German hospital full of soldiers in a well-synchronized operation. The characters are not well-developed and inconsistent, and Louise is a nurse and a sniper; Jeanne is a selfish whore capable to self-sacrifice for a cause; Liliane hates Heindrich, but when she sees him, she changes; Gaëlle is expert in explosives and absolutely unsuitable for the second mission. The greatest problem in this film is the reference that it is based on a true story. My vote is six.Title (Brazil): "Contratadas para Matar" ("Hired to Kill")

Films abound regarding arguably the greatest tragedy of mankind--World War II--and so many focus on the heroic sacrifices of men. What makes "Les Femmes de L'ombre" shine is that it features the typically unsung contributors to the war effort--the heroines who shared the same audacity and love of country and liberty as the men.Aside from its cast of four gorgeous French women (and an equally delightful Italian), it features a simple, but clever agenda--the actions of a cell of saboteurs and assassins working for the British Special Operations Executive (SOE) in occupied France. There are no fantastic stories here--no plots to kill Hitler or to sabotage atomic research. Instead, the story narrows its focus to the extraordinary efforts to keep secret the particulars of the inevitable invasion of the European continent by the Allies. This is no small order, and there is much suffering in keeping what must remain secret.The emotions in the film are well played by the actors and actresses. During the few brutal, but necessary scenes, the cries of anguish and pain are real and powerfully emotive. Louise (Sophie Marceau) is convincing as a vengeful widow who works alongside her dedicated brother, Pierre (Julien Boisselier). Jeanne (Julie Depardieu, daughter of the famous French actor Gerard Depardieu) plays a callous whore motivated at first by remission of her prison sentence, then by money, then by revenge. Gaëlle (Déborah François) portrays the naïve, religious girl who is seemingly the only true French patriot of the group. Maria (Maya Sansa) is a driven, Italian Jew whose family met its fate in a concentration camp. The most reluctant member is the lovely Suzy (Marie Gillain), whose questionable past allied her with the most unlikely of characters, Colonel Heindrich (Moritz Bleibtreu) of the Wehrmacht and the film's major antagonist. Unexpected support comes from local profiteer, Eddy (Vincent Rottiers), whose connection to Colonel Heindrich enables the saboteurs to get close to him to fulfill their mission.If there's a noticeable weakness to the film, it is Bleibtreu cast as a Nazi colonel. He's neither evil nor intimidating. He lacks the sinister persona of Colonel Landa (Christoph Waltz) of "Inglourious Basterds," a decidedly less serious film of the genre. Where Colonel Heindrich should have been clever and cruel, his performance instead is wooden and uninspiring. Bleibtreu may be a little out of his realm in a role so serious.Les Femmes de L'ombre is a solid contribution to the WWII films of the last decade. I hope it inspires more stories of the Resistance to be told with attention to the incredible sacrifices and dedication of normal people confronted with the horrors of Nazism.