Film Review: Glorious 39 (12A) ***
STEPHEN Poliakoff often strikes me as being a writer-director who’s a touch too clever for his own good.
And so it turns out with this pre-war drama which stars Romola Garai (Anna Keyes), Bill Nighy, Julie Christie, David Tenant, Jeremy Northam, Jenny Agutter, Hugh Bonneville and even Christopher Lee adding to his record-breaking CV.
It’s better looking than Nowhere Boy but lacks the emotional thrust.
The story begins in the present day with a young man probing the past.
He leads us to Anne, the adopted daughter of a Tory grandee (Nighy).
Madly in love with Foreign Office official Lawrence (Charlie Cox), the budding young actress puts her future at risk by discovering some dark secrets about Britain’s relationship with Nazi Germany.
Showing only at Warwick Arts Centre from Saturday, Glorious 39 is perfectly watchable, but never quite convincing enough to last the pace for 129 minutes.
