A film about idealisms, utopias and harsh realities, which could be much better than it is, but is still good enough to be worth it.
There are many movies about romance and love in times of war. John Duigan gives us a film about love, but also about hopes for the future, utopias and the way war and human cruelty end it all in an instant. That old story of idealism versus reality. The film is good, but as a drama it is a little inconsistent and does not work from a romantic point of view.
The script begins with the unusual meeting between a young Irish student named Guy and a beautiful and liberal French heiress, Gilda Bessé. They have an affair that, years later, they will resume in Paris, including the young Spanish Mia. The ménage-a-trois ends up when Guy and Mia go to Spain to help the republicans in the Civil War. The defeat in the war and the German invasion of France will later condemn Gilda to a difficult survival, as the lover of an officer of the invading troops... and I really don't want to say more because it would spoil the pleasure of watching the film.
As I said, the movie is good, and it has a good story. The problem is that there's a lot here, and there are several sub-plots that come out of nowhere and end up not resulting in anything: it's the case of the tense relationship between Gilda and her rich father, or what happens to Mia's brother. Very little consistency and dramatic solidity, in a script that seems fragile at various times. I'm even willing to forgive that... but it's hard to ignore the way the film confuses love with sexual horniness. Gilda Bessé seems to be anything but a romantic or passionate young woman, and the relationship between her and her partners is very sexual, but not exactly rosy.
Despite having a pretty good cast, there are only three actors who really deserve a note and highlight. Penélope Cruz is quite believable in her character, but the director doesn't give her anything that really allows the actress to do something really memorable. Her character is cold, a little shy, and the actress has the ability to impress us more. Stuart Townsend does what he can in his character, but he's not "nerdy" enough for the character he's been given. He's elegant, he's handsome, but that's about it. He's not even an actor who seems capable of combining beauty and intellect in the same character. This makes me think that he was only cast in the film because he is the husband of the remarkable Charlize Theron who, in fact, is the soul of the film and gives us an extraordinary performance, where beauty, sexuality, drama and suffering are perfectly matched.
Technically, it's a restrained film, standard Hollywood at the time. There are some aspects that were very well-used, such as the original footage of the war, in black and white, and the way in which the sets and costumes were designed and recreated, managing to show the passage of years and the evolution of the characters very well. The soundtrack, however, could be better, while the cinematography seems a little disconnected from the rest of the work.
