Stars: Cate Blanchett, Billy Crudup, Michael Gambon, Rupert Penry-Jones, Anton Lesser, James Fleet, Ron Cook, John Benfield

Director: Gillian Armstrong

Summary: Based on the novel by Sebastien Faulks, this is the story of Charlotte who falls in love with a RAF pilot named Peter. Peter is dispatched on a mission to France and disappears, Charlotte is distraught and sets out to find him...

CHARLOTTE GRAY is directed by Gillian Armstrong (MRS. SOFFEL, OSCAR AND LUCINDA) with her signature recipe for success--a love story set in beautiful scenery played by an all-star cast. Here, Charlotte Gray (Cate Blanchett) is a Scottish woman in mid-WWII, living with an adventuresome pair of young female roommates. While attending a snooty book publishing party, Charlotte escapes from her girlfriends long enough to meet a British pilot, Peter (Rupert Penry-Jones), with whom she falls in love. After a brief but passionate affair, Peter is sent on a mission to Nazi-occupied France where his plane is shot down and he is reported M.I.A. Torn apart by love, Charlotte enlists herself as an underground operative in the resistance and accepts a mission to rural France. Charlotte, now working under the code name Dominique, parachutes out of an airplane, and captures two young Jewish boys in her net. The man who untangles the bunch, Julien (Billy Crudup), becomes her one trusted contact, and arranges a job for her as governess to the two boys, hiding out in the chateau owned by his curmudgeonly father (Michael Gambon).
Presenting a beautiful love story complicated by WWII tension, Armstrong creates a photographically impeccable film with a strong orchestral score and a capable, utterly attractive cast. CHARLOTTE GRAY is based on the best-selling novel by Sebastian Faulks.

WIN DVDs by rating this DVD

Average User Rating:

WIN DVDS by being amongst the first to review this DVD. Reviewing DVDs earns you bonus entries and lets you WIN DVDs!Please login before reviewing this DVD. If you're a new user, register for free and enter to WIN FREE DVDs!

When it was released in 1994 Four Weddings and a Funeralquickly became a huge international success, pulling in the kind of audiences most British films only dream of. It's proof that sometimes the simplest ideas are the best: in terms of plot, the title pretty much says it all. Revolving around, well, four weddings and a funeral (though not in that order), the film follows Hugh Grant's confirmed bachelor Charles as he falls for visiting American Carrie (Andy McDowell), whom he keeps bumping into at the various functions.

But with this most basic of premises, screenwriter Richard Curtis has crafted a moving and thoughtful comedy about the perils of singledom and that ever-elusive search for true love. In the wrong hands, it could have been a horribly schmaltzy affair, but Curtis' script--crammed with great one-liners and beautifully judged characterisations--keeps things sharp and snappy, harking back to the sparkling Hollywood romantic comedies of the 30s and 40s. The supporting cast, including Kristin Scott Thomas, Simon Callow and Rowan Atkinson (who starred in the Curtis-scripted television show Blackadder) is first rate, at times almost too good: John Hannah's rendition of WH Auden's poem "Funeral Blues" over the coffin of his lover is so moving you think the film will struggle to re-establish its ineffably buoyant mood. But it does, thanks in no small part to Hugh Grant as the bumbling Charles (whose star-making performance compensates for a less-than-dazzling Andie MacDowell). Though it's hardly the fault of Curtis and his team, the success of the Four Weddingsdid have its downside, triggering a rash of far inferior British romantic comedies. In fact, we had to wait until 1999's Notting Hillfor another UK film to match its winning charm--scripted, yet again, by Curtis and starring Grant. --Edward Lawrenson

Aspect Ratio:	16:9 Anamorphic Wide Screen
Main Language:	English
Region:	Region 2
Special Features:	Directors Commentary, Featurettes A Village Revisits History And Living Through Wartime, Interview With Gillian Armstrong, Interview With Cate Blanchett, Cast And Crew Interviews, TV Spots, Trailer, Deleted Scenes, Behind Enemy Lines The Real Charlotte Grays
Year:	2001
Release Date:	January 5, 2004
Runtime:	116 minutes
Certification:
Catalogue Number:	C C D 9902
Label:	Film Four Distributors
Keywords:	War, English, Charlotte, Gray, Romantic, Drama
Genre:	Drama