Gillian Armstrong's re-working of the Sebastian Faulks novel offers a moving depiction of war and the individuals who are thrown from the ordinary into the extraordinary.
Charlotte Gray (Cate Blanchett) is a young Scottish woman living in London in 1943. While reading a French book on a train she is spotted by a Government Special Operations official who approaches her to work as an undercover agent in enemy territory, due to her fluency in French. Although initially unsure, her boyfriend is reported missing in action over France and so her decision is made. Sent to southern France (at the time ruled by the Vichy Government in collaboration with the Nazis) Charlotte teams up with communist resistance leader Julien (Billy Crudup). As Julien's small resistance group gains a reputation, the Nazis begin to take notice and the situation for both Charlotte and Julien becomes increasingly dangerous.
The film examines how individuals react to war. Their psychological changes, emotional attachments and the awful devastation of war are examined without getting too caught up with politics and the war as a whole. Both Armstrong and Faulks appear to recognise that a study of individuals within a small part of the war gives a fuller sense of the history and atmosphere. Such complex issues as the changes to France during occupation, the divided nation, the Vichy government and the persecution of Jews are certainly not ignored but simply come into the narrative as Charlotte experiences them, and thankfully none of them are forced upon us as the 'point' of the film. Similarly the love interest between Charlotte and Julien does not descend into sentimental slush, but is again used to add to the texture of the film (perhaps Armstrong has learnt from the mistakes of John Madden's Captain Correlli's Mandolin).
The performances are all strong. Cate Blanchett is here perfectly cast as the brave, intelligent and caring Charlotte. Blanchett's face also appears a striking emblem for France: the whiteness of her skin, redness of her lips and pure blue of her eyes echoing the tricolour flag. Billy Crudup is also impressive as Julien, and Michael Gambon as his father is a wonderfully stoic and gruff Frenchman with a soft and caring heart. One of the most impressive character portrayals however comes from Ron Cook's Mirabel, Charlotte's English contact, who holds a deep bitterness for being forced from his normal life in Birmingham into the loneliness and danger of wartime France. Mirabel stands for all the unsung antiheros of war who rarely feature in WWII films, whose contribution was invaluable but done not from a sense of duty or honour but because they had no choice.
Charlotte Gray is a moving, tense and ultimately involving film which benefits from strong performances, a subtle directorial hand and a refreshingly female perspective.
Reviewed by Tim Smedley
Reader comments about Charlotte Gray
Lynda Topham (Email address withheld) writes:
Very enjoyable - thought provoking and emotional
JimBob (Email address withheld) writes:
An awful film, tne normally very good Cate Blanchett struggles with her accent(she actually goes Irish at one point), and the film hardly does justice to a very serious subject.Disapointing.
Kenneth Jones (desktop@cbeagle.co.uk) writes:
Sentimental tosh. Having lived through ww11 and worked for a number of years with an ex soe wireless op who was very badly treated by the Gestapo.He would not have been impressed i know. Read Noora Imra Kahn's autobiography executed in the closing month's of the war along with seven other women agent's of whom it was rumoured four were still alive on cremation.
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