Lacks the emotional intensity of The English Patient

Rating: 7/10 (3 April 2008)

Not quite as bad as I thought it was going to be, given what I'd heard and read here and there but still very much The English Patient for the Heat Magazine crowd. Like Pride And Prejudice the direction is strong, probably a bit earnest and the Dunkirk scene was pretty amazing if striving a bit too hard. I thought the story was interesting but the problem was the two leads who were out of their depth. Funnily enough I felt that it was McAvoy who was the weaker of the two as Knightley did manage to generate a couple of acting moments but all too often it felt a bit Harry Enfield when they were trying to deliver their meaningful dialogue. In comparison to The English Patient where it felt completely natural for the characters to talk in that stylised luvvie dialogue, here it just wasn't working and as a consequence it was difficult to feel the characters' emotions so much so that when the emotional wrench does come it falls a bit flat. If they'd have gone with leads that were a bit more mature and had a bit more presence it might have worked but I still think there'd be a bit of a issue with the source material.