The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

There's a more than satisfactory amount of boom-boom in the movie's trim running time.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

I had fairly high hopes for the film "Millions Like Us" as it sounded an interesting idea on paper. Sadly, the final results didn't live up to my expectations. The whole thing appears to have been filmed by a bunch of amateurs as the film lacks depth and technical ability. All those film sets that represent exteriors only rob the film of any kind of scale. In the leading role, Patricia Roc is alright but not exactly outstanding. She can't project much in the way of strength in her performance and comes across as being a whiny schoolgirl who craves attention. Although Gordon Jackson is billed second in the cast, he doesn't enter the film until half way and has little to do. The same is true of Basil Radford. He isn't part of the plot and is completely wasted. The one performance I did enjoy, was that of Moore Marriott as the father of the family in question. He is mainly in the earlier portion of this movie but he is the one to remember. Occasionally, there are flashes of mild interest. Eric Portman and Anne Crawford have a couple of tense sequences together and manage to perk the proceedings somewhat. Not a masterpiece by any stretch of the imagination.

At the time this must have been easy to file as painless propaganda; Launder and Gilliat start off as if attempting to emulate Noel Coward's classic This Happy Breed, we are introduced to a cut-rate Gibbons family and in particular two daughters, one a flighty Queenie clone this time called Elsie (Joy Shelton) and a more grounded Phyllis, now called Cecilia (Patricia Roc) but very soon and perhaps wisely the team realise that even the two of them are light years short of one Noel Coward so they veer off into Rosie The Riveter mode and give us a picture of Women At War which is not unpalatable by any means. There are two romances both slightly improbable, Patricia Roc snags a hopelessly inept Gordon Jackson whilst second female lead Ann Crawford winds up with Eric Portman. Seen today for the first time it failed to bore or embarrass though the England depicted is on the far side of the galaxy compared to what Blair has made of it.

I was quite taken with the various Fantasy sequences of Celia. The courtship scene between the two leads captured the awkwardness of that time, I think, much better than any of,say the Andy Hardy films. I also like that this film tried to reclaim Beethoven, I think. Though some may find this movie too leisurely, I feel this film lets itself breathe, much as real life is, sometimes, leisurely. Also, we watched this after two weeks of 2008 Convention coverage, and enjoyed getting back to ideas. I wondered why this film started at the beaches in 1939 but realized there was a real payback for that.Does anyone know if there is a good book covering the BRITWAR films (for want of a better name) including the Michael Powell, etc. films.There just seems so much more substance in them than many of the rah rah American WWI flicks. This may just be the ones I've seen, which are basically TCM. (I'm exempting the Seventh Cross and Uncertain Glory, which are both wondrous cinema, to cite two examples.)

Millions Like Us is one of the few films made during the 2nd World War which deals with women factory workers. When Celia gets her call-up papers she wants to do something glamorous like joining the ATS. Instead she is sent to a munitions factory.This movie is part love story and part propaganda-flic. The propaganda elements are more subtle than in many 40s films eg 'The Next of Kin'. However the life of the factory girl is glamourized. This is Celia's escape from the domestic drudgery of caring for her elderly father and allows her to find true love. Also the togetherness of the factory girls is emphasised throughout the film. The contrast between shots of Celia demure and alone that we see at the start of the film and the final scene of her as an integral part of the group is marked. Not only is munitions work vital to the war effort, we are being told, but it also provides companionship, an outlet and fulfillment for women.A film about and for women in the workplace may sound like a step forward from the usual patriarchal portrayal of the female sex. Yet, at its heart this is a deeply conservative film. Ultimately Celia finds fulfillment with and through a man and whilst the companionship of women is important, all the female characters are searching for a husband.However, the Directors should be applauded for having done a good job in making an enjoyable, informative propaganda film.By the way, look out for the shots of Patricia Roc's feet when she is talking to her husband. Is this an erotic charge or fear of chilblains? Watch the movie and let us know what you think.