Reviews

Fortunately my copy of Taken was a Christmas present and therefore cost me nothing. So I haven't lost anything but the time it took me to see four episodes, after which I threw in the towel.

When characters start to narrate on screen, regardless of the circumstances, you know it's the old film industry mafia, pressuring the writer either to save time or to fill it. The continual Shirley Temple voice-over was irritating enough (and often incomprehensible, so lush was the American accent), but in episode four, the action actually stopped at least three times, while one of the characters launched into a long monologue, as they tried to explain the inexplicable plot.

Based on episodes 1 -4, this isn't a very entertaining mini-series, in fact it's very tedious most of the time.

This film is a love story, loosely based on the real-life heroism of WWII. Those who enjoy such films would not have been disappointed by Charlotte Gray.

Unfortunately, Channel 4 decided to precede the film with the transmission of a documentary about the real-life heroines, whose personal sacrifices, pragmatic courage and strength of character shone out of my TV in a way that had me close to tears. The film, which followed, showed none of the iron self-discipline, the de-sensitising effect of war nor the constant fear of discovery these people lived with, but concerned itself with emotional story lines that would have been at home in any modern love story, loosely based on any social environment you care to choose. Far from blending into the background, along with the oppressed French population, Cate Blanchett was often portrayed parading in high heels and flattering autumnal colours, looking like a million francs

Too frequently for this viewer, it dipped into the downright absurd, e.g. having a) the male lead exposing himself to danger in an astonishing, barking tirade at German troops, b) the collaborationist French schoolteacher volunteering to the goodies that he was a snitch for the Germans and c) Charlotte herself somehow persuading a gendarme not to reveal her whereabouts to his search party colleagues, even when safely out of range of her pistol.

What a wonderful piece of history it was. And what a wonderful film could have been made of it (with the same cast too; the individual performances were all perfectly OK, especially in the minor roles).