Juliet (and Romeo). Lily James and Michiel Huisman in The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society.
If there was an award for the most unusual film title of the year THE GUERNSEY LITERARY AND POTATO PEEL PIE SOCIETY (dir Mike Newell, 124 mins) would definitely be in the running. That said it is the only one it is likely to win – which is not to say the film is devoid of purpose, just far too compromised to carve out a lasting impression.
The title belongs to a covert book club who meet on Guernsey during the German occupation of the island in World War Two. Shortly after the war has ended one member of the group, pig farmer Dawsey Adams (played by Michiel Huisman, a Heathcliff figure if ever there was one, in a film littered with Bronte references), finds a Battersea address written in one of the books they have read and writes to its previous owner – which is the former London abode of author Juliet Ashton (played engagingly by Lily James), who intrigued by the contents of the letter, that states how much the book club had done to maintain spirits during Nazi subjugation, decides to withdraw from a tour promoting her current novel to visit Guernsey in order to research an article relating to the war time story. This impetuous decision comes in the face of exasperation from her agent Sidney Stark (Matthew Goode) and American fiancée Mark Reynolds (Glen Powell), who we can decipher at an early stage are gay (Stark) or far too pushy (Reynolds) for romance to ever truly prevail with a gushing English rose such as Juliet.
Once arrived in Guernsey Juliet is initially welcomed by the group (played with routine excellence by Huisman, Katherine Parkinson, Penelope Wilton and Tom Courtney), gratified to have a published writer among them. But that soon turns to agitated reticence particularly from Amelia Maugery (Wilton), as dark secrets begin to emerge from the terrible days of being occupied, Juliet discovering conflicting accounts regarding Elizabeth (Jessica Brown Findlay), the absent member of the book group. Her past is the subject of speculation and scandal based on manage a trois with Dawsey Adams and a German officer, inevitably a doctor and someone who has done a great service to one of the islanders and not one of the cruel foot soldiers who have administered appalling brutality to the slave labourers brought over from Nazi conquered Europe to build coastal gun batteries – one of whom is aided by Elizabeth, whose compassion is punished with banishment to a labour camp in Germany.
While the film stops well short of puerile ‘Allo Allo’ territory, the clichés are still too liberally strewn and when Reynolds arrives to curtail Ashton’s stay there is even a ‘Casablanca’ styled aeroplane departure taking her from the true love she has found and back to London where only conformity in the shape of her impending marriage awaits.
The last quarter of an hour springs no surprises in either dialogue or plot, the cosiness used to good effect in previous Mike Newell films such as ‘Four Weddings and a Funeral’ far given too much rein – leaving this potato peel pie light and fluffy when what it needed was some strong seasoning.
NEIL SAMBROOK is the author of MONTY’S DOUBLE – an outstanding new thriller now available as an Amazon Kindle Book.