Oddly quiet movie with WWII backdrop
By Paul Tatara
CNN Reviewer
(CNN) -- With "Charlotte Gray," Director Gillian Armstrong has made a glossy wartime soap opera that's oddly allergic to bubbles.
Cate Blanchett plays a supposedly daring Scottish woman who becomes a French Resistance fighter during World War II. Blanchett is an extraordinary actress, and she does what she can to flesh out the material. But Charlotte is one of the least active underground operatives in movie history.
With the exception of helping blow up a German train by tying a couple of wires together, she basically does nothing but pass notes with other conspirators. Most of the time, the biggest danger she faces is the risk of a paper cut.
In the opening scenes, Charlotte, who speaks fluent French, has a fling with Peter, a young British pilot (Rupert Penry-Jones). The affair is dealt with in a matter of minutes, so it's hard to accept that Peter getting shot down over France convinces Charlotte to become a secret British operative.
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Moreover, though Blanchett's alabaster skin and sparkling blue eyes are tailor-made for period films, she looks pretty silly wearing a khaki uniform and running an obstacle course. You can tell that she'd have better luck mailing a hand grenade than she would actually throwing one.
Beautiful people with nothing to do
Soon enough, Charlotte is blending into Nazi-occupied France and passing notes like a cheating fourth grader. Her secret hope, however, is that she'll somehow find Peter alive ... not that the audience really thinks she'll wind up in his arms again.
After all, literally seconds after parachuting into her new homeland, she meets Julien, a Resistance fighter played by Billy Crudup. Crudup is even better looking than Blanchett, and he's nearly as talented an actor. That's why it's so disappointing that neither performer is given anything memorable to do. Even their kisses are grounded in tricking the Nazis.
There's a relatively tense scene that ends with the capture of a Resistance member in a quaint little cafe. Then Charlotte winds up living in a farmhouse owned by Julien's eccentric father (Michael Gambon). Julien is hiding a couple of young Jewish children there, and Charlotte slowly turns into their mother figure. Yet, even with her busy schedule, she always manages to roll out of bed in the morning in full makeup.
Everything is so spiffy and withdrawn, it's hard to determine what we're supposed to be getting anxious about. The kids are little sweeties who are incapable of registering genuine fear on their faces, and Charlotte never seems overly attached to them anyway.
Eventually, when local authorities who are collaborating with the Germans come looking for them, the little tykes turn into nothing more than a plot device. It's not like you're watching "The Diary of Anne Frank," in other words.
Good cast, but no fireworks
Still, if you're a fan of this kind of thing, you might enjoy a lot of it. The supporting cast is reliable, especially Gambon, who can currently also be seen in Robert Altman's "Gosford Park." His mumbling and grumbling brings a sense of life to a story that too often seems sanitized for our protection.
Ron Cook, as Charlotte's tired British contact, and Anton Lesser, as a local school teacher/informant who lusts after Charlotte, are also dead-on. Lesser certainly has an apt last name. He effortlessly conveys the torment of being one of life's permanent second-stringers.
It's still too bad, though, that Blanchett and Crudup aren't allowed more fireworks. You can't help but be dazzled by Blanchett, even when she's trudging through weak material. She's not the "new" anybody, but it wouldn't be out of line to say she's the new Meryl Streep. You just can't take your eyes off of her.
Crudup, on the other hand, is Crudup. His performances are non-flashy affairs that get the job done with a minimum of fuss and tons of natural charisma. The problem with "Charlotte Gray" is that the job simply isn't very exciting.
"Charlotte Gray" contains one moment of bloody violence, a night-time machine gun ambush, and scenes of children in peril. The story actually loses impact because Blanchett seems illuminated from within, like a cigarette-smoking angel.
