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Glorious 39 (2009)

Director: Stephen Poliakoff

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23 reviews

Movie review

From Time Out London

Read our interview with Poliakoff here

A political yarn – sometimes creepy, sometimes daft – in the Hitchcockian vein, TV dramatist-playwright Stephen Poliakoff’s first film for cinema in a decade is a claustrophobic drama relating to appeasement and the aristocracy in 1939. Poliakoff channels a high-level conspiracy, based on fact, through one high-living family, of which Bill Nighy’s Alexander is the calm, unreadable patriarch and Romola Garai’s Anne is the eldest but adopted sibling.

Poliakoff places a game Garai in the paranoid centre of the action: a bit like Margaret Lockwood in ‘The Lady Vanishes’ or Cary Grant in ‘North by Northwest’, she appears in every scene bar a modern-day framing device that sadly dilutes some of the film’s more opaque elements. As Anne stumbles upon some dastardly goings-on, we see everything through her eyes so that you wonder whether she’s a victim or just untrustworthy. Poliakoff’s heightened dialogue and his actors’ arch delivery are an acquired taste, but somehow they mostly suit the sense of a nightmare enveloping Anne. If only the plotting were more convincing and the prologue and epilogue less distracting.

Read our interview with Poliakoff here

Author: Dave Calhoun

Time Out London Issue 2048: 19-25 November, 2009

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User reviews of this film

Joe Frances said...

Posted on Sep 12 2011 01:10 This movie is so absurd as to ultimately cause one to shake his head in disbelief that such talent was wasted on this piece of trash. Maybe somebody could and will make an interesting film on the Chamberlain appeasement policy, and the way it split Britain. Maybe there is the germ of story in this, but the idea of the aristocracy and the appeasement squad killing off opposition is utter nonsense. Yes, they tried to get Churchill run out of Parliament, and they were so the great dirty tricksters, but they way the story is told here is without a shred of historic truth and fails miserably as drama. Maybe it's make believe melodrama, ok, but it is crap dressed up like steak. Please don't waste your time.

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Bonnie M said...

Posted on Sep 11 2011 17:13 As an American, it was interesting to see the rationale of some of the British upper classes in backing Chamberlain's appeasement policy. Unfortunately, the melodrama of the film's plot and dialogue were really hard to take, including the stomach-churning scenes with evacuees taking their animals to be put down that presaged the atrocities that would shortly take place on the continent . There were also a lot of Hitchcockian references that were too heavy-handed to be carried by the negligiblle script.....I did appreciate the beautiful construction of the film--you Brits have the best filming techniques by far!! I can't say I enjoyed the film, but it showed this viewer a side to the pre-war mentality of the British "ruling class" that is not often shown in America (along with the US reluctance to join WW2 as well)

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Cathy said...

Posted on Aug 23 2011 21:34 Oh, was I the only one who enjoyed it? I've got to admit that I did rumble the villans but it was the only thing that really spoilt it for me. However, Stephen Poliakoff is a firm favourite of mine (watch "Shooting the Past") - he writes those dramas about family sagas like no other!

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Peter Berman said...

Posted on Aug 21 2011 10:05 OK, so perhaps the plot was more obvious to the viewer than to the heroine but this was filmed and acted superbly. Very British, very restrained and in true Poliakoff style. The role of the father (excellently played by Bill Nighy) was suspicious but never quite certain. Romola Garai was tremendous.

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damprice said...

Posted on Aug 17 2011 00:17 Watched the first twenty minutes ( it seemed like an hour) on my laptop when suddenly it lost connection. The 20 minutes I took to fix the problem was a waste of time but I'll never get back the 1 hour 40 of the rest of the film. After 45 minutes I commented to my wife that it was like Scooby Doo if played by the Famous Five and nothing in this film persuaded me otherwise. Well apart from the fact that in Scooby Doo sometimes it takes you a while to work out who the bad guys are! Favourite laughable moment? The repeated @I think you should look again Anne.' moment. Most hilarious piece of repeated plot exposition I've ever seen and I've sat through some dire movies.

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manfred said...

Posted on Aug 16 2011 23:08 I quite enjoyed it. Far better than some of the dismissive comments here. Poliakoff always makes something worth watching.

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DaveB said...

Posted on Aug 15 2011 11:35 Have just watched this on TV but felt compelled to comment. This was beautifully filmed and at great expense, using public money I imagine. It was also one of the stupidest films I`ve ever sat through. The plot was weak to the point of incredulity. It was so full of holes it would have made an Emmental cheese blush. Some of the bizarre set pieces were so jarringly tasteless and extended we started talking amongst ourselves. The Actors are not to blame but Poliakoff and his team need to look at themselves and ask Are we insulting the intelligence of our audience? Complete Rubbish

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Gwen said...

Posted on Aug 14 2011 23:16 A good performance by Romola Garai, but I was struck by the very wooden and unconvincing performance of several other cast members, particularly Bill Nighy. Disappointing; I can understand why it failed at the Box Office.

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PaulN said...

Posted on Aug 14 2011 22:59 I have never heard such bad dialogue in my entire life! What a waste of a Sunday. I would give it no stars if I could.

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aaron mullen said...

Posted on Jul 12 2011 02:51 poor old mr poliakoff. your film is really bad old bean. silly plotting and horrible directing. its time to retire squire

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guye said...

Posted on Mar 14 2011 02:16 I had heard great things about this movie, sadly none of it deserved. At least half an hour could have been chopped out - it was so ponderous, Nighy, who I really enjoy, was so flat and sonambulist in extreme - I put this down to bad directing. Surely Poliakoff must have seen this from the first rushes screening. This is a good text book study of where a writer directing his own script can really mess up. He needed a strong producer to sort out this plodding film with some truly awful lines, and agree with Drew, the ending was an insult to intelligent viewers - my guess is Poliakoff had his eye on the American market. Total waste of valuable and scarce public funding.

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Alan B said...

Posted on Jan 24 2011 19:01 A triumph of visual composition fused with a compelling screenplay, strangely dismissed by some critics, when, together, they make this a superlative work, from the inspired, thematically early, abbey located scenes.The title is inspired.

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Drew said...

Posted on Jan 01 2011 13:42 Garai is great but her character is so stupid, and remains so to the end, her screaming fit murders any hope of greatness. And what about those old codgers? the little fat kid had a chance to redeem himself (and if he had we might have been interested in the old man) but instead takes her back to the family which lead to more craziness with the family letting her go after all that....a nose dive ending on an increasingly frustrating movie

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Edward Warren said...

Posted on Oct 29 2010 22:39 Absolute rubbish. Avoid.

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Loulou said...

Posted on Oct 18 2010 12:32 I like most of the actors here and for the most part it was exciting and enjoyable but the ending let it down. It just kind of petered out ...

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