Stupendous turn from Romola Garai in the lead role but, while this sets up intrigue and atmosphere well, the plot devices creak audibly towards the end.
Comment
11/20/09
Glorious 39 (2009)
53
%
Tomatometer
How does the Tomatometer work 
Reviews Counted:19
Fresh:10
Rotten:9
Average Rating:5.2/10
Rated: 12A
Theatrical Release:20-11-2009
Reviews for Glorious 39
1 - 19 (sorted by date; UK critics are listed first)
Top CriticA political yarn – sometimes creepy, sometimes daft – in the Hitchcockian vein.
11/20/09
Top CriticPoliakoff's flaccid script and indulgent cut undermines a beautifully shot thriller with an excellent cast and original central idea.
11/20/09
Top CriticFor all its sumptuous production design, Steven Poliakoff’s tale of glamorous toffs and treason is so laboured and slow that it’s practically pensionable.
11/20/09
Top CriticA ripping, old-school conspiracy thriller.
11/20/09
Top CriticA bizarrely tasteless pet-euthanasia subplot -- clumsy parallels with the Holocaust abound -- is merely the wackiest turn the wildly unconvincing script takes: it’s well below Poliakoff’s more intelligent TV work.
11/20/09
Top CriticThe increasingly camp air of menace is actually pretty enjoyable.
11/20/09
Trapped in a perilous zone between TV and cinema, this wartime conspiracy thriller ploughs through an improbable plot with all the urgency of a snail going through wet concrete.
11/20/09
Unfortunately, Stephen Poliakoff's tale of wartime skulduggery should have stayed on paper. The sort you can flush. Tedious, overlong and laughably unconvincing, the only remarkable thing about it is Bill Nighy's performance. Specifically, how bad it is.
11/20/09
Poliakoff’s conspiracy thriller about Hitler-pleasers and appalling aristos comes with all the bucolic loveliness you’d expect. But its biggest boost comes from Garai, whose fragile, hypnotic turn should make the actress a gong contender.
11/20/09
There’s much to admire in the film, such as sequences of the often forgotten panic when family pets were systematically put down as war became inevitable, but there’s quite a lot to argue about too.
11/20/09
Poliakoff cleverly translates the mood of fear and uncertainty in Britain into a dark psychological maze that leads Anne to the edge of insanity.
11/20/09
As a director of child actors, Poliakoff is hopeless. Worst of all, he seems not to have seen many movie thrillers in the past 20 years, for the pacing is pedestrian and the camerawork static, more redolent of bad episodes of Midsomer Murders.
11/20/09
Stephen Poliakoff performs his usual routine of conjuring an atmosphere of mystery and intrigue for the first hour and failing to fulfil it in the second.
11/20/09
The cast is impressive – Julie Christie, Jenny Agutter, David Tennant, Hugh Bonneville, Christopher Lee – though more astonishing is why any of them were tempted into such tosh.
11/20/09
Romola Garai is extremely good but the film is an elegant disappointment.
11/20/09
Poliakoff gives the finale a feverish intensity that's genuinely shocking and works surprisingly well.
11/20/09
This pre-war drama is a bundle of suspense, mystery and personal emotion that's beautifully filmed and sharply played by a first-rate cast.
11/20/09
Not quite glorious... but fans of good old-fashioned wartime mysteries will find it really rather spiffing. Pip pip!
11/20/09
1 - 19 (sorted by date; UK critics are listed first)
More Movies
| Tomatometer Percentage | Movie | Date |
|---|---|---|
| 92% | Seraphine | 29/11 |
| 83% | Paranormal Activity | 25/11 |
| 23% | Law Abiding Citizen | 29/11 |
| — | Bunny and the Bull | 29/11 |
| — | Mr Right | 29/11 |
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