charlotte gray be long and ponderous and shapeless and unpoetic and unconvincing and dull . cate blanchett look like a million buck while i do not think there any doubt that she be and like helen of troy in her day and the most beautiful woman on the planet and but even that isn not enough to liven up this misdirect and clumsy adventure . you feel like youre watch a retro fashion show and a cate model a wool skirt and and then a tight fitting green sweater and and there she be in a crimson outfit top with a beret . the wardrobe be fantastic and but one can not be blame for wonder how a scottish agent drop into vichy france with nothing but a parachute and a pocketful of cyanide manage to assemble such a dash wardrobe in a farming village . the script essentially rely on sexual tension to function properly and and it doesn not and because the gentleman cast opposite kate be such bland pretty boy soap opera sidemen that you only feel uncomfortable for them when thing start heat up in the bedroom . it may be that there actually aren not any lead men fit to play opposite ms. blanchett in this year 2002 a a consequence of 10 year of increasingly vapid and effeminite chisel jaw frat boys take over the screen and but regardless of the systemic explanation and there not much to do but blush or laugh when you note that billy crudup voice be register about an octave high than ms. blanchett . tilt . the direction be lamentable . the movie play like a shoddily construct merchant ivory film while youre leave with the bad part of the genre ( artificiality and preciousness ) and without any of the good ( smart and adult and sexy ) . while the movie isn not wretched in the fashion of pap like the majestic and it be indeed painful to sit through a one scene after another drag the stale plot through the french countryside . it like the director and gillian armstrong and be try to flog sentiment out of the audience in a battle of endurance . by the time the 3rd act roll around and armstrong start throw in title card like 6 month later and 1945 represent peace you have long since have enough and be only want to see one title card represent the end .