It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.
View MoreAll of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.
View MoreThe movie really just wants to entertain people.
It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.
View MoreThe only good things to take away from this film were the performances of Bill Nighy and his agents. It was overly sentimental and the characters had neither chemistry nor believability.
View MoreEven when one has suffered such great loss,wouldn't that be giving death dominion over life?
View MoreCatrin Cole comes to London with her artist husband during the Blitz, and takes a job writing "slop" (dialogue for female characters) in films put out by the War Dept. This morphs into screenwriting an inspirational movie about the role of women in the Dunkirk evacuation. But personal relationships raise complications...This movie successfully weaves together elements of romance, drama, comedy, feminism, war, and the British class system (among others) in telling Mrs Cole's story. In doing so, it throws in two story twists, one of them major. They don't exactly turn the story on its head, but they do mean it doesn't follow the course one expects.Gemma Arterton is good as Mrs Cole, and Sam Claflin pleases as her boss. But everyone will love Bill Nighy as egotistical Actor Ambrose.I feared that this would be a feminist tract, but that particular message is sold subtly: it's there, but the film doesn't beat you over the head with it. And you are engaged by the characters, so the message is welcomed.I enjoyed this, and so did the rest of the audience, all of whom were over 60.
View MoreThis tragicomedy contains things to like, such as a sensitive and careful reconstruction of everyday life during wartime. There are also flashes of wit and insight to savour. But it is unclear what, if anything, the movie hopes to say or teach or achieve. Does it want to tell us that life is short and war is cruel ? That movies, especially propaganda movies, tend to embellish and embroider ? That the making of movies, especially propaganda movies, is a demanding and capricious business ? But surely we knew all that ?Another of the movie's themes concerns the shifting role and work division between men and women. But again, there have been other, earlier movies that treated the same subject. Besides, it's difficult to pick up a school book on modern Western society that doesn't mention this transformation.The biggest disappointment, for me, came from the scenes where the viewer (finally !) gets to see the propaganda movie about the Dunkirk evacuation. You expect something grand, something sweeping, something stunning - or, who knows, perhaps something cheesy or chaotic beyond belief. Instead you are rewarded with a few glimpses of what seems like a nicely crafted but unremarkable work. It's underwhelming, especially for a sweeping epic that was supposed to rouse the USA to full-throated fury. Was this the movie that launched a thousand ships and burnt the topless towers of Ilium? No, mate, it wasn't.
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