Despite Blanchett's brilliance, Charlotte Gray is still drab.
Charlotte Gray (2001)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:88
Fresh:28
Rotten:60
Average Rating:4.7/10
Consensus: A dull adaptation of Sebastian Faulk's novel despite gorgeous cinematography and Cate Blanchett's best efforts.
Runtime: 1 hr 59 mins
Genre: Dramas
Synopsis:
London, 1942.
The world is at war.
A seemingly chance encounter with a stranger on a train leads a young Scottish woman (CATE BLANCHETT) to consider enlisting in a special operation with the...
London, 1942.
The world is at war.
A seemingly chance encounter with a stranger on a train leads a young Scottish woman (CATE BLANCHETT) to consider enlisting in a special operation with the French Resistance. When her lover, an RAF pilot (RUPERT PENRY-JONES), is shot down in the line of duty, Charlotte joins the secret mission as a means to serve her country and find the man she loves.
Assuming a new identity, "Dominique" parachutes behind enemy lines in Southern France, where she rendezvous with Julien Levade (BILLY CRUDUP), the leader of the local resistance group. Posing as the new housekeeper for Julien's father (MICHAEL GAMBON), "Dominique" serves as a liaison between the British government and the resistance fighters, helping to thwart Nazi efforts to move munitions and abduct local Jews, while secretly attempting to learn the fate of her missing lover.
As the war escalates, Charlotte's resolve and commitment to Julien, their comrades and their cause deepens. A once rather ordinary woman, Charlotte involves herself in extraordinary acts of heroism, jeopardizing her own safety to protect those who cannot protect themselves. But when the Gestapo closes in and their mission is compromised, she and Julien are forced to take flight or risk capture and certain death.
Back in London, Charlotte finds she has been forever changed by her experience, and must follow a heart torn between the man she followed to France and those she has come to love in the course of duty.
Warner Bros. Pictures presents, in association with FilmFour and Senator Film, the romantic drama Charlotte Gray, directed by GILLIAN ARMSTRONG from a screenplay by JEREMY BROCK, based on the best-selling novel by SEBASTIAN FAULKS.
Charlotte Gray is produced by SARAH CURTIS and DOUGLAS RAE. The co-producers are CATHERINE KERR and ELEANOR DAY. PAUL WEBSTER, ROBERT BERNSTEIN and HANNO HUTH are the executive producers. -- © 2001 Warner Bros.
Starring: Cate Blanchett, Billy Crudup, Michael Gambon, Rupert Penry-Jones
Starring: Cate Blanchett, Billy Crudup, Michael Gambon, Rupert Penry-Jones, John Benfield, Ron Cook, Anton Lesser, Robert Shannon, Jack Shepherd
Director: Gillian Armstrong
Director: Gillian Armstrong
Screenwriter: Jeremy Brock
Producer: Sarah Curtis, Douglas Rae, Elinor Day
Composer: Stephen Warbeck
Studio: Warner Bros.
Reviews for Charlotte Gray
A sweeping World War II drama that displays so much promise with its beautiful cinematography and superb portrayal by Cate Blanchett that you scarcely notice (or even care) that the story is a bit thin.
Director Gillian Armstrong may not have been able to retain a lot of what made the novel such a rewarding experience, but she fashioned the basic plot into an old-fashioned, if slightly glammed-up, wartime melodrama.
Have that bottom-scraping feeling of being the final story to be told about the great conflict.
Despite Cate Blanchett's strong performance in the title role, the World War II spy film is lacking the requisite thrills.
You never get a sense of danger or suspense or romance or anything else you might associate with people in love doing incredibly dangerous resistance work in WW2, which makes the movie itself very easy to resist.
The movie's problem is that the screenplay (by Jeremy Brock) accentuates the book's weaknesses while skirting its strengths -- much of the detail is gone, but the melodrama is more florid than ever.
This is a long-lost classic from The War that fell through a time warp and landed at our feet today.
Armstrong's deadly dull pacing deflates what inherent suspense lies in Gray's perilous situation.
The movie works so diligently to convey a spirit of heroic uplift and fails so completely that it feels like a tragic misfire.
The movie is almost breathlessly girlish, the kind of chaste, fantasy romance-adventure that might be imagined by a girl of 11 still dreaming of her first kiss.
A sadly pale, drab piece of hokum, hopelessly old-fashioned and emotionally flat.
Cate Blanchet made more movies this year than MGM and she was excellent in all of them. Her best shots for an Oscar nomination? Supporting actress in Bandits and Best Actress in Charlotte Grey.
An amateurishly-directed war story with one of the most ludicrous finales of any picture of this genre.
Brock's script deepens the purples of Faulks's prose while airbrushing out the grays.
Latest News for Charlotte Gray
July 22, 2005:
Guy Pearce to Defy "Death" in Houdini Biopic
Guy Pearce and Rachel Weisz will co-star in the Harry Houdini biopic "Death Defying Acts," according to Variety. Gillian Armstrong ("Charlotte Gray") will... More...
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