Glorious 39 (DVD)

It’s 1939 and everything’s a bit tense.  The year before, everyone was having a fairly decent time of it, recovering from the economic crash, engaging in frightful class warfare and not being blown half to hell by marauding foreigners. Then it turns out the charismatic moustachioed gentleman in charge of Germany is actually a raving, warmongering lunatic and all of a sudden everything goes back to being rubbish again and Europe becomes the site of yet another bloody massacre.

It is, as its title suggests, at the very eve of that terrible conflict that Glorious 39, the latest feature from writer-director Stephen Poliakoff, is set. Except it’s not. The entire film is told, somewhat unnecessarily, in flashback to a teenage boy (Tony Regbo) living in the present day, by his only surviving relative from that time who remembers the events (Christopher Lee). He recounts the tale of his older cousin Anne (Romola Garai), a young actress of aristocratic birth, who unwittingly stumbles upon a parliamentary conspiracy to strike a deal with Hitler and hand Europe over to the Nazis.

Poliakoff’s record speaks for itself. He’s no mug when it comes to story-telling, and he demonstrates his skill once again here. The story never becomes pedestrian, as these types of pre-war period dramas are wont to do and the tension is nicely ramped up from the second act onwards. The plot is as labyrinthine as you’d expect from its conspiracy-based theme, but never overwhelming. It’s beautifully shot - the relative innocence of Britain in its pre-war heyday conveyed nicely, contrasting well with the underlying darkness of the theme.

Unfortunately, despite the nice balance in tones, it all unravels distressingly quickly in the last half-hour. The over-reaching silliness of the story finally gets the better of the lavish visual style and by the film’s truly ridiculous conclusion, there’s a definite sense that the addition of the flashback style of storytelling is a lazy way of providing closure to the piece.

It’s a shame, as there’s an excellent mix of both up-and-coming talent and solid veterans amongst the cast, all turning in decent performances. Whilst his appearance is brief, David Tennant shows that five years in the TARDIS hasn’t dulled his enthusiasm and versatility, whilst Bill Nighy and Julie Christie provide a solid foundation for Romola Garai’s commendable central role.

Overall Verdict: There’s certainly much to admire about Glorious 39 and it would certainly be a stretch to call it a bad film, but one can’t help feeling that Poliakoff should have quit whilst he was ahead, as a lush and sometimes intriguing conspiracy yarn becomes an overlong, rather implausible and frustratingly flawed attempt to tell a different side of the build up to war.
 
Special Features:
Commentary with director Stephen Poliakoff and actress Romola Garai,
‘On The Edge of War: Uncovering Glorious 39’ Featurette
‘Close Up: Stephen Poliakoff’ Featurette
‘Glorious 39: The London Premiere’ Featurette
Still Galleries: Costume, On Set Photos

Reviewer: Alex Hall