Develops from not much into a superbly-portrayed near-masterpiece

Rating: 9/10 (1 November 2019)

First a word of warning: my experience of the start of this film from British Director Mike Newell was of it looking rather trite and simplistic, even possibly as if made for children! It was surprisingly offputting, and I never expected that I would end up viewing the piece in such glowing terms. But I indeed did, and found myself both moved and elated by the quality of the work as it progressed towards its conclusion - so please stick with this, do not write it off, as your temporary forbearance will be rewarded!
While the unfolding mystery plot is ultimately strong and compelling enough, my feeling would be that the movie develops as it does because of pretty-attractive filming, inspired acting giving us characters we quickly come to love; and the way it exposes a series of well-acted and meaningful relationships between people who mostly need each other because of the various traumas they have experienced and the yawning gaps that have been left in their lives as a result.
The linchpin to that is the beautiful Lily James's character Juliet Ashton.
However, the film is mainly 1946 Britain (and its recently liberated island of Guernsey just off the French coast), and a key - at times glaring - first contrast is between the Brits and a gung-ho, competent, well-off and keen-to-party American called Markham (Glen Powell), for whom the impressive WW2 victory is most tangible and least muted. The others (non-Americans) naturally have quieter celebrations, if any at all in the case of the specific Guernsey experience, but their needs and passions are greater.
But, when Juliet gives up on her engagement with "Mark" - as she clearly requires something more complex and nuanced, less free of darker issues - Powell joins his fellow cast members in acting this just right, and indeed with almost painful authenticity.
Writer Juliet has a superbly portrayed relationship with her gay publisher friend Sidney, and that's all credit to Matthew Goode, who is perhaps playing his "usual role" in some way, but who absolutely brings his warm and kindly character to life. Sidney's gay, but loves Juliet clearly and profoundly (as many of us on this side of the screen can fully understand!); and it's a touching and nuanced performance.
Juliet's increasingly passionate interactions by letter and then in real life with Dawsey (Dutch actor Michiel Huisman) is also done well, with tangible chemistry on offer. But James also has a fine scene in bed (though not in THAT way) with newfound friend Isola (Katherine Parkinson); and this is also a tremendously well-acted and meaningful exchange based around strong sympathy staying just the right side of pity.
It hardly needs saying that Tom Courtenay is great in his role - as postmaster and another member of the titular Society, while another beauty in the shape of Jessica Brown Findlay also does HER key (and tragic) character full justice.
While I cannot claim to be a huge Penelope Wilton fan, I think it must also be said that she acts here as powerfully well as we have ever seen her do.
And if all that wealth were not enough, there are also a couple of good roles for child actors, whose on-screen circumstances move us very readily indeed.
Overall, the story is meaningful and strong emotionally, and the skill is first to have found a way to sum up so neatly (all aspects of) the trial the Channel Islands went through; and secondly to give us a simple cathartic medium (via books and poetry) that brings together and heals strong characters whose traumas run deep.
A thought here would be that countries like Poland or even France would regard the stories on show as so entirely familiar (if still agoinising) that they come close to the typical. The skill with "The Guernsey Society" is the way we up the ante by this being that same kind of story within the British experience (not least because some Channel Islanders - children in particular - evacuated to Britain, while others did not). Our victory was a proud and moving one, our liberation of the chunk of our land that was occupied (inevitably, but in some sense to our shame) means yet more in that context.
Ultimately, there should not be a dry eye in the house for both reasons of British patriotism, and because of the emtional reinterpretation of what the term "family" may come to mean, not least in the context of timeless British literary classics that shape who we are and bring us through hard times.
A patriotic film them, moving, meaningful and quite beautifully portrayed.