Reviews

People wondering where the plot is in this film should stop looking because there isn't really a coherant one to speak of. It's a sequence of events in one teenager's life and if all loose ends aren't tied up then that is probably because that's what life is like. One kid joins the army and that's that; a big black guy trying to find out who robbed him comes to a dead end and goes no further; a love interest is hinted at but never develops; an escape route for the eponymous Charlie is offered but ultimately rejected; we never find out what happens to the kid who shoots a man, whether the one who's run over is actually dead (it's only hinted at as far as I can tell), where Charlie finally goes to - and so it goes on. All this might sound like spoilers but it isn't because there's no plot to spoil. But what you get here is an excellent portrait of one boy's life, his state of mind, his attitudes, loyalties and hidden hopes. I spent the film wondering why he stood by his horrible friend and, to answer the query of another review, felt that he gave that friend the gun because he'd just about given up on him; believed that he no longer cared. Or perhaps, having been unable to shoot the other man himself but really wanting to, he actually hoped that the other kid would do it for him.

This is a well crafted rites of passage film, beautifully filmed and well acted (and top marks to Northerner Paul Nicholls for a faultless London accent). I have to agree that South London's large Asian community was pitifully under represented and there were far too few black faces to be realistic either. As far as the film's brilliant colour scheme is concerned, I loved the director's deliberate attempt to move away from the drab, depressing way that working class London is invariably depicted. We do have glorious summers, brightly painted doors and windows on houses, colourful clothes, trees and flowers a-plenty and even the kind of community spirit that the film portrayed. We have both the negative and the positive that "Goodbye Charlie Bright" contains and plenty of good looking people too! Which reminds me of another negative comment by another reviewer; none of the characters where impossibly handsome or beautiful and I've seen plenty walking around South London who certainly wouldn't look out of place on a catwalk. But I have to admit that I've never seen so many Millwall shirts gathered together in one place and it's a chilling image indeed!

Ten minutes into this film I honestly didn't think I was going to enjoy it. It really looked as though I was going to be treated to a Brits as buffoons and Americans as heroes stereo-typical war movie. However I should have kept in mind that the producer is German, the director Austrian and the writer a British born Jewish actor. I soon found myself quite enjoying the rather ludicrous situation (based on a true story apparently) involving a group of seemingly useless and, for the most part, desk-bound Brits and an American who never completes missions, dressing as women to infiltrate the German factory that builds the Enigma code machines. One is a pen-pusher of rather advanced age who's terrified of the prospect of being dropped behind enemy lines, another is a bi-sexual transvestite who appears way too camp to be capable of doing any more than giving the others make-up and deportment tips. Then there's the brain-box multilingual de-coder, barely out of short trousers, hopelessly naive and with a weak bladder to boot and finally Matt Le Blanc playing apparently dumb but cute like only he can (which I do not mean as a slight on the man).

Only one of these men is in anyway convincing as a woman (and it's not the t.v. - sorry Eddie!) and although I found myself enjoying the film despite myself I just couldn't accept the fact that they were actually getting away with it. The fact that two of them couldn't speak German and they all made no attempts to lower their voices when speaking English didn't sit well either. Were we really expected to swallow the notion that the British army were so stupid that they'd send non-German speaking soldiers on a mission behind enemy lines or, for that matter, that they wouldn't use the option of female spies to do the job? But I'm pleased that I over-came these annoyances and didn't let them spoil my growing enjoyment of the film and its rather delightful assortment of characters. Especially as, very late on in the action, everything becomes clear and falls right into place quite beautifully. But to tell you how that comes about would be to plant a spoiler so I'll not say another word about it.

"All The Queen's Men" actually handles its subject matter extremely well and, considering four of them are wearing dresses, none of the actors are tempted to camp it up anymore than is strictly necessary and they all perform with a good sense of both the comedy (which is, for the most part, subtle) and drama involved. There's a little bit of romance, a touch of pathos here and there and, very importantly, an extremely sensitive yet understated view of how ordinary Germans were dealing with the devastation of the Second World War. Having accepted the somewhat implausible plot, I found myself enjoying the well crafted script and couldn't help but grow rather fond of all the central characters. This film left me smiling and making a mental list of all the people I know who I'd like to share it with. Give it a chance and you might just find yourself agreeing with me.