Flabby editing, lovely cinematography...

Rating: 6/10 (16 March 2005)

The caption says it all. Decent adaptation of a well-received book; this is one which could have done with a little ruthlessness when transferring it to film, however. Almost seems to be in love with itself - a little too convinced of its own splendour and profundity. Rafe gives a reprise of his slightly psycho grumpy sod. Kristin Scott Thomas is delicious but a little too modern, perhaps. The excellent and battling Juliette Binoche miscast (at age 32) as a teenager growing up fast in war. The movie wavers between an apparent desire for on-the-mark period realism and sudden clanging bits of contemporary dialogue and delivery. Lusciously filmed and staged, however. All in all more of a 6.5, but something wasn't quite hitting the note for me, so I rounded down for the statisticians...