gwailo247

I knew this was a romantic movie upfront, but the WW2 stuff seemed interesting enough to take a look.

I must say that I watched the whole thing through, and it kept my interest. Its pretty predictable, but the characters stay rather true to themselves, and although the ending is predictable, its not necessarily obvious.

I will give credit for the locations/effects. The film never looks cheesy, and you can tell that effort was made to be authentic. It certainly is a war movie, there is blood and gore aplenty, not Saving Private Ryan gory, but enough to remind you this is war.

The movie has 2 parts, the romantic story in England, and then the adventure part in France. This split makes the movie go by rather quickly, I was kinda surprised this was not one of those WW2 miniseries that were so popular at the time.

I can't say that I would overwhelmingly recommend this movie, but if something about it strikes your interest, one of the actors perhaps, or in my case the setting of WW2, then I would check it out.

There are some funny moments, I maybe laughed about ten times. Steve Zahn is NOT funny, Jonah Hill is horrible, that fake accent is even worse. It looks like the cast was really stoned in most of the takes, and not in a good funny way either. I saw this movie for free otherwise I would be angry at the money I just wasted.

This is a case of good ingredients, but a horrible meal. But it shows a lack of effort more than anything else.

Main reason I am posting this is to warn people away. I went on IMDb before going, saw the cast, looked at some pictures, figured it would be funny. I am now coming back to say NOT FUNNY. Seriously. Watch Suberbad or Knocked Up again (or even for the 10th time) I guarantee you will laugh more.

Its not easy to make this kind of movie. The plot was followed by most of the audience as it occurred in reality, and has been analyzed and re-analyzed in the years since. For the most part the principal characters are all still alive, and active in the public eye. Our familiarity with them makes the actors jobs much more difficult as every viewer has the ability to critique the performance in terms of accuracy.

The makers of the film overcame these obstacles. The acting is wonderful, and the film progresses at a good pace. The use of archive footage, and how it is edited into the film provides an interesting counterpoint to an otherwise conservatively filmed movie. This technique gives the audience some insight into how the royals must feel, a formal audience one second, and blur of flashes and images assaulting you the next.

Helen Mirren is excellent. Her queen is an heir to a thousand year old tradition that is being slowly backed into a corner by the people. She wants to hold on to the very few things left to her, tradition and proper decorum, and even those are stripped away from her one by one. At the end we see her transformation, her realization that the institution of the monarchy is more important than its details. And perhaps even though she symbolizes a by gone era, she chose to tread in new territory in how the royal family would act in its role of the symbolic head of the family of Britain.

The DVD adds two excellent commentaries which greatly enhance the film. First is the director and writer, giving their perspective on the making of the film, while the second is by a royal expert, who points out departures from reality that the creative process took, as well as putting events and actions into context and explaining their importance or relevance.