Is Cate Blanchett the best actress today? I start believing it. She just performed superbly in all the last films I saw. Almost any critic I read compares her with Meryl Streep, and no wonder - she has the interior strength and beauty that makes her shine in all roles, without being of a remarkable physical beauty.
Unfortunately, 'Charlotte Gray' cannot offer Cate Blanchett a good script to turn it in a Big movie. The story is quite un-believable, and if it has any logic it is Hollywood logic. Hard to believe an anonymous girl can train and become a spy just because she wants to search for her disappeared lover, and we never get any sense of the reasons she is being sent for. The Holocaust story is spoiled and sentimental a la Hollywood, and the characters behave without any real interior reason, just as the cliches of big studios American movies ask. Most awful is the treatment of the language. Blanchet is a Scot, lives in London, and then is sent to France because she is speaking fluent French. All the movie is spoken in English. Why? Language plays a role in the spying game, and if French was used in the scenes happening in France, much credibility could have been added.
Despite all the film is watchable, and I enjoyed every second Cate Blanchett is on screen. I am looking forward for the great movies and the Oscars to come, as she deserves.
Unfortunately, 'Charlotte Gray' cannot offer Cate Blanchett a good script to turn it in a Big movie. The story is quite un-believable, and if it has any logic it is Hollywood logic. Hard to believe an anonymous girl can train and become a spy just because she wants to search for her disappeared lover, and we never get any sense of the reasons she is being sent for. The Holocaust story is spoiled and sentimental a la Hollywood, and the characters behave without any real interior reason, just as the cliches of big studios American movies ask. Most awful is the treatment of the language. Blanchet is a Scot, lives in London, and then is sent to France because she is speaking fluent French. All the movie is spoken in English. Why? Language plays a role in the spying game, and if French was used in the scenes happening in France, much credibility could have been added.
Despite all the film is watchable, and I enjoyed every second Cate Blanchett is on screen. I am looking forward for the great movies and the Oscars to come, as she deserves.