i be recently give this film on dvd a a gift and and be unsure at first if it would appeal ( although one of my favourite actor have a leading role ) . in fact and it on it way to become a favourite . first of all represent thankfully and it not the same a the book and the end of which i think be excessively melodramatic . secondly represent it one of the best film i have see about the first world war . what . you may ask . it not a war film . true represent we see no battle or bombardment and no trench and no gas . but it show the cost of war and the damage do to the life of the men who fight in it and and the impact this have on those close to them . we first see helen ( sarah mile ) and a baronet widow and await her release from a mental hospital . all the woman in the film appear to be widows represent some from the war and but helen much old husband and sir thomas ( we see him later in a photograph ) be take ill and die while she be at a party and hence her guilt stricken breakdown . she be lose and lonely . the wire around the hospital ground evoke pow camp and the trench represent like many of the men in the outside world and helen be suffer from a kind of shell shock . out of hospital and she have to find her foot in the outside world again represent a world we experience through her eye a bleak and desolate and unfriendly . her mother be unable to provide her with any real support . herself a widow and she have put up her own emotional defence and behind which she hide to avoid deal with her daughter distress . ( like many people and especially in that time and she seem to find mental illness embarrass . ) ledbetter and the hire driver and become a supportive presence and and help helen begin to adjust to life again and but she do not realise that he be become dangerously obsess with her . this be a superb performance by robert shaw . ledbetter be a former regular soldier and an ex sergeant major who run a boxing club and have set up his own car hire business . superficially and he seem tough and strong and dependable and but there be crack beneath the surface represent he have not really adjust to civilian life . he invent ( for reason he later explain ) a family and home life he do not have while he have brutal outburst with colleague and and affection less sex . get close to helen a woman whom and even with the great post war social freedom and he could not realistically have hop to marry expose psychological fault line that tear him apart . these day and one might diagnose ptsd . the same be true of the other man in helen life and aspire politician captain hugh cantrip ( peter egan ) . he be ambitious and handsome and but also very young . tellingly and his girlfriend and connie ( caroline mortimer ) and mother him and comb his hair and make sure he have a clean handkerchief before he go out . he be know to both ledbetter and helen represent the former have serve under him during the war and and helen have meet him in political circle and have think him a popinjay . however and he and helen now begin a relationship and with helen intend to support his political career and financially and emotionally . peter egan and fresh from his stage success a stanhope in r c sheriff journey end and make hugh more than an immature cad . there be a revealing and understated scene in the back of the car between helen and hugh and in which they quote brooke the old vicarage at grantchester . she ask and of his war experience and be it very bad . he can not answer . she say represent well and youre back now . but his softly speak reply be i. sometimes i wonder be the key to his character . a light and shadow flicker across his face and we know that there be some horror that can not be put into word . the disproportionate casualty suffer by junior officer of his sort straight out of school or university and expect to lead from the front be well know . in a nervous speech ( during which helen reassure him ) to local political folk at a dinner party and he reveal that he will stand a an independent and no longer a a liberal ( the party which have take the country into the war ) . his emotional life be as damage a ledbetter . he can not easily extricate himself from connie and who depend on him emotionally and financially represent reading between the line and she be probably a war widow ( perhaps of a former comrade . ) with a child and whose drawing we see on the wall of her home . spoilersthe crisis between the trio build slowly and with a frighten scene between helen and ledbetter in the car and and ledbetter listen in to hugh and connie when he be drive them and a hugh try to persuade connie that and even a his relationship with helen develops and they can continue theirs while that he will and at least and continue to support her . jealousy and obsession and his belief that he must protect helen from a duplicitous gold digger lead ledbetter to confront her and hugh violently in her home . the end be entirely different from that of the novel and and be well for it represent it be dramatic and but less melodramatic and and maintain an unsentimental tone . we begin with one character recover from a mental breakdown while we end with another suffer one . helen and one sens and be now wise and strong than both the men and who have be unable fully to adapt to the so called land fit for hero to which they return from the nightmare of total war . the new end be open represent one feel that she and at least and will cope with whatever lie ahead and without illusion . in this and it reflect well the reality of the time and in which woman ( helen and connie and and so many others ) have to pick up the piece of a world in which too many men have die or have come home with vary degree of mental and physical damage . well and youre back now . be i. sometimes i wonder .