Glorious 39
The superb Romola Garai in Glorious 39
Monday, 16, Nov 2009 11:48
Directed by Stephen Poliakoff, out November 20th in cinemas, starring Romola Garai, Bill Nighy, Eddie Redmayne, Juno Temple, David Tennant, running time 129 mins.
What's it all about?
At the centre of events is the landed Keyes family, lorded over by kindly patriarch Alexander (Nighy), a Conservative grandee. His son Ralph (Redmayne) works at the Foreign Office, while startlingly beautiful adopted daughter Anne (Garai) is a budding actress and youngest daughter Celia (Temple) is a budding socialite.
The children's idyllic lifestyle in the Norfolk countryside is shattered not just by the looming conflict but Anne's discovery of secret recordings on her father's estate.
As Anne uncovers more of the truth behind the recordings, hidden on foxtrot LPs, everyone in her life becomes embroiled, from fiery pro-Churchill MP Hector (Tennant), lover Lawrence (Charlie Cox) and fellow actor Gilbert (Hugh Bonneville).
What the others say
"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." - Phil de Semlyen, Empire
"Stephen Poliakoff's pre-second world war conspiracy thriller never zips the way it should, but it's still a solid, old-school entertainment." - Xan Brooks, Guardian
So is it any good?
After a ten-year absence, renowned television dramatist and playwright Stephen Poliakoff returns to the screen with a family drama set on the eve of the second world war.
In typical Poliakoff fashion, the landscapes are bleak, the sets and costumes are lavish, and the cast is immense. It's a crushing shame that such an eminent director has wasted them all on a pointless story with a nonsense script.
Poliakoff says he wanted Glorious 39, named after the golden summer Britain basked in before six years of war, to resonate with modern audiences suspicious of their government's involvement in their way of life.
"For a long time I've been fascinated by these few weeks in history, the story of how Britain came so close to doing a deal with Hitler, and staying out of the second world war," he said.
"In the space of a handful of weeks in 1939 British society was completely transformed... I wanted to dramatise these events through the eyes of one woman who is caught up, with her family, in this crucial moment in history."
Pre-war Britain was a time of great uncertainty in Britain, at the time at the head of a vast empire and unaware of the unprecedented upheaval the next decade would witness.
By concentrating on improbable conspiracy theories that jar with the pro-appeasement government of Neville Chamberlain, Poliakoff loses his focus on the unease pervading the country, while the Keyes - supposedly at the centre of a social storm - seem largely unaffected by the troubled waters ahead.
A thriller that seems overlong at 125 minutes, Glorious 39 will be viewed by cinematic historians in a similar light to the appeasers of the 1930s.
5/10
Matthew Champion