An average movie

I wasn’t sure what to expect from this movie but since it was starring Gemma Arterton and Gugu Mbatha-Raw, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, to be honest, it wasn’t really good, I’m afraid. First of all, even though Arterton was lovely as usual, in my opinion, she was rather miscast here. Indeed, I never thought that she was really convincing as a bitter old spinster. The fact that her character would constantly refuse to welcome a young boy while the bloody WWII was raging on made it also rather difficult to root for her character. Concerning the rest of the movie, I have to admit that there were a couple of decent ideas though, I especially liked this old lesbian couple and how this young boy didn’t mind that two women would be in love but the end-result just didn’t really work. I mean, WWII was basically reduced to a side note and, even if it might be cynical, when you think about it, it actually allowed these women to have a kid and get rid off the sperm donor in the process. You might also wonder how they did manage to live in this small community, as a lesbian couple, without getting into trouble. Indeed, back then in the 50’s, Alan Turing was convicted for his homosexuality so it was still considered as a criminal offence. There were also some fantasy elements but they had so very little impact on the rest of the story, you might wonder why it was even added in the first place. I guess it was there only as a way to bond Alice and Frank. By the way, the twist during the 3rd act, that he was actually the son of the love of her life, was just so far-fetched. Anyway, to conclude, even if the damned thing was rather harmless, I just didn’t care much for it and I don’t think it is really worth a look. 

5/10