Harry here with what looks like Capone's last review of 2001. Capone is the man, the war horse of AICN, he is simply a machine. He takes the punches of the bad films and the fellatio of the great films. Capone has bee pretty bruised this year and much of his oral pleasure was spoilt with a variety of dragged teeth. I can't wait to see Capone's 2001 wrap up, for he has surely seen it all. Here ya go....
Hey, Harry. Capone in Chicago here. Well, I’m sad to say this is probably my last report of 2001, and unfortunately I must leave you on a less than enthusiastic note.
No one is working harder as an actor these days than Cate Blanchett. In the last year, I’ve seen her in six films: THE GIFT, THE MAN WHO CRIED, BANDITS, THE SHIPPING NEWS, LOTR: THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING, and now her final film of the year, which is most places won’t open until early in 2002, CHARLOTTE GRAY. (And look for her in March 2002 in Tom Tykwer’s HEAVEN, based on an unproduced script by Krzysztof Kieslowski.) Reteaming with her OSCAR AND LUCINDA director and fellow Australian Gillian Armstrong (LITTLE WOMEN, THE LAST DAYS OF CHEZ NOUS), Blanchett plays Charlotte, an English woman living in WWII. As the film opens, Charlotte is returning to London from a trip and she is invited to a book launch party, where she meets a handsome young pilot and falls madly in love. Because of her having spent years studying in France and her fluency in the language, she has been tempted by government officials to return to France and act as something of a spy/courier for the military. When her pilot lover’s plane goes down in France, she decides to take the courier job and perhaps search for him between assignments.
After weeks of intensive military training, Charlotte is airlifted into Southern France (still under Nazi control, but self-governed by a very collaborative French police). Her French contact is Julien Lavade (Billy Crudup). I have to say that I missed the opening credits of this film and had absolutely no clue that Crudup was in this movie, so seeing him in his one and only screen appearance this year was a nice surprise. Julien is a communist and commands a small but lethal band of resistance fighters who blow up trains and assassinate collaborators. When Charlotte’s mission and identity are compromised, Julien moves her to his father’s home. Julien and his father (Michael Gambon from THE INSIDER and SLEEPY HOLLOW) don’t exactly see eye to eye on politics but they do share an affection for Charlotte.
The problem I had with CHARLOTTE GRAY was that it seemed like rehash. All of the players are strong, but there’s nothing new here. It’s certainly an interested twist seeing a female hero in a film set during WWII, but the villains seems much too overplayed and the heroes are far too noble and passionate. As if the cruelty of the Nazis wasn’t clear enough, the writers throw in the fact that Julien’s father is hiding two Jewish children whose parents were taken away. There’s a scene where German tanks are driven through the town where Charlotte is hiding as a show of force. Julien stands in the streets shouting the names of missing friends and associates as if to intimidate the soldiers. The whole scene seemed fake, and I didn’t buy that Julien would risk capture in such a foolish way. Blanchett was born to play heroic characters like this, and she looks stunning and luminous doing so here. But the film’s second act drags, and the two-part epilogue (part in England, part in France) is completely unnecessary. None of the spy stuff is particularly intriguing or original, and even a potentially unique perspective on the war is made dull.
Perhaps the greatest shame about CHARLOTTE GRAY it’s probably Cate Blanchett’s best chance at an Oscar nomination this year, and the film is so dreadfully underwhelming that there’s no way she’ll get it. Maybe the Academy will take a cue from the Golden Globes and give her one for BANDITS; that really would be a shame.
Or see my collected reviews at just click on Steve@theMovies.
