Good to a point

Rating: Null/10 (7 July 2018)

The most notable part of this movie is Emilia Clarke. It is always fun to watch fine actors in something besides their signature pieces that you knew them from. In the old days, John Wayne was always John Wayne. Here, you can barely recognize Emilia Clarke, a high compliment. She has nothing of the Game of Thrones' Queen. There is nothing of that character's confidence, arrogance and presence. She is wholly transformed. There are many other recognizable faces in the cast for fans of contemporary British acting--like one of Clarke's G.O.T. colleagues, Brenda Coyle from Downtown Abbey and Jenna Coleman from Doctor Who--but only Clarke becomes a completely different person. It is worth watching this just for that transformation. (For most of the movie, she even LOOKS puffier and plainer, not exactly the image presented in G.O.T., whether deliberate or not.) The movie...charming and bouncy at first, with a poignant and increasingly sappy overlay ultimately, is not as interesting as the cast, but it is well worth watching and nicely paced. To be sure, there is a certain inevitability as to where it is going, but for most of the movie the tone is light and it refrains from wallowing in despair. Until it does. Those last 20 minutes are the least successful, unless you just enjoy a good cry.