I have a bias to confess: I could not see too many WWII spy films, read too many Ken Follett novels, get bored by the genre or complain of familiar stories told again. Today's narratives admittedly pit a clear evil force--the Nazis--against "good guy" spies, without delving into the moral complexities that might have led a decent German to join the Nazi party or search deeply into the evils that real spies did as a matter of fact, believing the ends to justify the means. While I understand that the real history is much more morally complex, the good guy-bad guy plots in the WWII spy genre are still satisfying to some more simple side of my personality.
Charlotte Gray is every bit as good as any other such film in the genre that I can recall. Admittedly, there are some ridiculous plot points (why the French fellow doesn't get shot down for yelling at the Nazis in tanks is still a mystery to me, and I thought her risking her life apparently just to write a letter to the condemned children was illogical--why not save yourself for the chance to save some other children instead?), but then what movie do I see that hasn't three or four illogical moments? I have no idea why this particular film is so despised, though I have to wonder if it is because a woman is the heroic character. I thought we'd come beyond such silliness, but lately, I've been thinking, no, there is still a lot of male anxiety about strong women, even if they are safely far away in time and place, and I suspect that has skewed the response to the movie.
My strongest negative reaction to the film was the same one I have to most recent Hollywood films, and is why I never go to see one at the cinema or even buy many DVDs: the women are too thin, unhealthily thin, hideous to look at for that, and Blanchett qualifies there. This actually interrupts my suspension of disbelief: whenever I see a full-body shot of a size 0 actress, I'm diverted while I think "eat a damned sandwich! Get some eating disorders therapy!" My awareness of the health crisis that this aesthetic is precipitating in our young women always detracts from my enjoyment of movies after that fact. Additionally, it isn't correct historically. Beauty in the 1940's was not stick-thinness, it was a size 10 full-busted woman.
Charlotte Gray is every bit as good as any other such film in the genre that I can recall. Admittedly, there are some ridiculous plot points (why the French fellow doesn't get shot down for yelling at the Nazis in tanks is still a mystery to me, and I thought her risking her life apparently just to write a letter to the condemned children was illogical--why not save yourself for the chance to save some other children instead?), but then what movie do I see that hasn't three or four illogical moments? I have no idea why this particular film is so despised, though I have to wonder if it is because a woman is the heroic character. I thought we'd come beyond such silliness, but lately, I've been thinking, no, there is still a lot of male anxiety about strong women, even if they are safely far away in time and place, and I suspect that has skewed the response to the movie.
My strongest negative reaction to the film was the same one I have to most recent Hollywood films, and is why I never go to see one at the cinema or even buy many DVDs: the women are too thin, unhealthily thin, hideous to look at for that, and Blanchett qualifies there. This actually interrupts my suspension of disbelief: whenever I see a full-body shot of a size 0 actress, I'm diverted while I think "eat a damned sandwich! Get some eating disorders therapy!" My awareness of the health crisis that this aesthetic is precipitating in our young women always detracts from my enjoyment of movies after that fact. Additionally, it isn't correct historically. Beauty in the 1940's was not stick-thinness, it was a size 10 full-busted woman.