Charlotte Gray (2001)

Director:

Gillian Armstrong

Writers:

Sebastian Faulks (novel)
Jeremy Brock (screenplay)

Release Date:

22 February 2002 (UK)

Genre:

Drama | Romance | Thriller | War

Tagline:

The story of an ordinary woman in an extraordinary time.

Plot:

A young Scottish woman joins the French Resistance during World War II to rescue her Royal Air Force boyfriend who is lost in France.

Plot Keywords:

French Resistance | French | Scottish | France | First Aid Nursing Yeomanry

Awards:

4 nominations

Cast

Cate Blanchett	...	Charlotte Gray
James Fleet	...	Richard Cannerly
Abigail Cruttenden	...	Daisy
Charlotte McDougall	...	Sally
Rupert Penry-Jones	...	Peter Gregory (as Rupert Penry Jones)
Robert Hands	...	Borowski
Tom Goodman-Hill	...	Business Man at Party
Michael Fitzgerald	...	Business Man at Party
Hugh Ross	...	Psychiatrist
Martin Oldfield	...	Assault Course Instructor
Nicholas Farrell	...	Mr. Jackson
Mike Burnside	...	Morse Code Instructor
Damian Myerscough	...	Gun Instructor
Miranda Bell	...	Female Instructor
Angus Wright	...	Agent

Also Known As:

Die Liebe der Charlotte Gray (Germany)

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for some war related violence, sensuality and brief strong language.

Runtime:

121 min

Country:

UK | Australia | Germany

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby Digital | SDDS

Certification:

Iceland:12 | South Korea:12 | Australia:M | Argentina:13 | Finland:K-11 | Germany:12 | Netherlands:12 | Philippines:PG-13 | Portugal:M/12 | Singapore:PG | Spain:13 | Sweden:11 | UK:15 | USA:PG-13 | Canada:A (Ontario)

Filming Locations:

France

Company:

Ecosse Films

Trivia:

The schoolteacher played by Anton Lesser was called "Benech" in the novel, but the small French town in which much of the movie was based had a popular mayor whose name was similar, so officials asked that the name be changed. He's called "Renech" in the final version.

Goofs:

Anachronisms: In some shots of the departing deportation train, it can clearly be seen that the goods wagons used bear the inscription "UIC St" and a rather long wagon number. Both things belong to the international UIC numbering system, not introduced before 1965.

Quotes:

Mirabel: [to Charlotte] Do you mind not approaching me in public? I'm rather keen on staying alive.

Movie Connections:

Featured in "Cinemania: I anodos kai i ptosi tou Nazismou" (2008)

Soundtrack:

La Java Bleue

Could have been much better

If ever there was a pointless movie, then this is it. The story is basically the wartime experience of a Scots lass Charlotte Gray, who has a much needed talent of being able to speak fluent French. ("Oh Lord, not again", do I hear somebody say? Yep! Afraid so.) It begins with Charlotte sitting in a railway carriage rolling up a cigarette with a type of paper that wasn't on the market until after the war (i.e. with tapered corners). Still in the carriage she then talks to a complete stranger who is obviously after personal information. Whatever happened to the observance of the popular slogan of the time, "Be like Dad, keep Mum"? After the railway journey she is seen alighting in a supposedly war-torn, yet oddly blimp-free and undamaged London from a post-war (indeed relatively modern) London bus. After which it starts to get sensible, but only for a while.

After falling in love with an RAF officer (and to whom for some unexplained reason she has tried to teach French beneath the sheets...please don't laugh, it's supposed to be serious), she discovers that he has been posted missing in France, so decides to join SOE (Special Operations Executive) for the express purpose of finding him. Hold on! It gets sillier!

Notwithstanding the fact that never would such an emotional girl either have passed the scrutiny, or indeed the strict training of the SOE, she is sent to France on a probationary tryout. A tryout? In wartime France, albeit only in Vichy? Oh come on!

Considering that many (if not most) agents sent, were captured and/or killed within days of their arrival this idea is ridiculous. In wartime, or at any other time, there is no place for sentimentality in the furtherance of sabotage or espionage. Certainly no tryouts. Churchill's idea was to set Europe ablaze, not to send love-sick girls on errands of stupidity (or should that be Cupidity). I'm still actually wondering what her official mission was, or did I miss something?

Then we're given a ludicrous depiction of an air drop. Supplies are dropped from no more than 60-100 feet at which height the parachutes would not have time to open, but somehow they do. (Needless to say if a person is dropped from that height they would almost certainly be killed, with or without a parachute.)

A short while later comes a scene (after said airdrop, of which the enemy had got wind and ambushed it), which shows that the Germans have left bodies of resistant fighters lying unguarded in the middle of a field. I find it extremely puzzling that the Germans didn't remove them from the scene, if for nothing else than to glean vital information from them. But then I suppose the screenwriter thought that really the Germans weren't all that clever. What? In his dreams! In the meantime Charlotte learns that her pilot boyfriend is dead.

Although being somewhat tedious, the story then begins to take on a vestige of reality, regarding the fate of two parent-less Jewish children and the resistance group leader's father who is also of Jewish ancestry. I won't say any more on the plot for fear of any more spoilers, but suffice it to say that the end is even soppier than the beginning.

I was going to mention more goofs in the film, but some have already been noticed by other reviewers and placed in the "Goofs" board. I refer you to them.

It's all reasonably well acted, and has good cinematography, but in coping with such an empty-headed script, no-one shines through. I was hoping this production would be as good as both "Odette" and "Carve Her Name with Pride". I'm sorry to say it doesn't even come close to either. That said, there was the making of a really good movie here, and it could have been another fitting tribute to the courage of all wartime agents. However, somewhere along the line it got lost amongst the emotional twaddle and the scriptwriter's fantasy. Maybe in the future someone with more nous will try a remake, and sort out the mess.