polluxaks4 Essentially a woman on the prowl; chases down a stud, beds him, calls it love. Then the stud who is in RAF gets shot down; she takes up scheme as foreign agent to rescue her lover. Once assigned she falls in with communist resistance fighters eventually participates with a guy who turns on his own father, supposedly to save his two children, but in fact gets the father, his two children sent off to concentration camps to be gassed, causes the maid to be killed by the butt of a rifle. Our heroine is told stud lover was killed not captured; war ends heroine returns to England, and lo and behold by happenstance runs into her stud lover airman...he's alive... happy ending...nope she is cold as a clam when she meets stud cause she realizes she's in love with communist contact and leaves for France to find new stud who has the blood of his father and children on his hands. Ending? Both low life's deserve each other. Movies ends with a thud. Wasted time.

tieman64 A dull and shapeless film by director Gillian Armstrong, "Charlotte Gray" stars Cate Blanchett as Charlotte Gray, a young woman who journeys to occupied France during World War 2. Here she works with the French resistance, is sent to a rural home, works undercover as a caretaker, protects Jewish children and eventually falls in love.Those familiar with early 20th century spy movies ("13 Rue Madeleine", "I was Monty's Double", 1954's "Betrayed", "Carve Her Name With Pride", "First Comes Courage", "The Lady Vanishes" etc) will find little remarkable about "Charlotte Gray". This is generic material, ineptly shot and only occasionally elevated by actors Cate Blanchett and Billy Crudup. Blanchett would star in "The Good German" some years later, a marginally better film with similar aims.4/10 – See "Shining Through".

SnoopyStyle In the midst of WWII, Charlotte Gray (Cate Blanchett) falls for dashing pilot Peter Gregory. She is recruited into the secret service since she spent time in France and is fluent. When Peter is lost behind the lines, she pushes to get the courier job for the French Resistance. Only she has the ulterior motive to find her missing love. Once on french soil, she finds french communist fighter Julien Levade (Billy Crudup).This is an utterly old fashion melodrama. That has less to do with the setting or time period. It has more to do with the style and the subject matter. The romance has no time to develop and has a very superficial manufactured old romance novel feel. Other than a pretty face, there is nothing to justify the grand romance being depicted. It would probably be more compelling to have this about a family member. Cate Blanchett is a truly wonderful actress, and any positives from this movie are all due to her. There is a sense of danger but it doesn't persist. Director Gillian Armstrong has made a beautiful movie. It just doesn't have better passion or excitement.

blanche-2 Cate Blanchett is "Charlotte Gray" in this 2001 film directed by Gillian Armstrong and also starring Billy Crudup and Michael Gambon.Charlotte Gray is a young Scottish woman who is recruited during World War II, due to her fluency in French, to work for the French resistance during Nazi occupation. Initially, she goes in the hope of locating her boyfriend (Rupert Perry-Jones), a pilot who was shot down. But she quickly becomes involved in her work. She takes on the identity, after her cover is nearly blown, of a housekeeper in a huge farm house owned by Monsieur Levade (Gambon) and caring for two little Jewish boys hiding there since their parents have been arrested. Levade's son (Crudup) is a Communist on the outs with his father. Gray soon realizes that there are collaborators everywhere, and no one is certain whom they can trust.Though I have some problems with the plot of this movie, it is a very moving and emotional story, exquisitely photographed and acted. Cate Blanchett is luminous, and her portrayal of Charlotte is magnificent, as is her accent. Gambon turns in another excellent performance, and Billy Crudup gives a very intense portrayal of Julien, his son.My problems with the plot include Charlotte's reasons for going to France. She was told that she would be excellent working there because of her fluency in French. Couldn't she have gone because she wanted to help the war effort? It seems flimsy for her to assume that after all of her training and the time that had passed, that she would be able to locate the pilot, if he even was still alive.The other problem I have is the incident in the café with her contact. Her contact knows that she was followed by Nazis, and the Nazi soldiers are on their way into the café, yet she has Charlotte pass her what looks like fuses or valves. Why? The third problem I have is Julien screaming insults at the Nazis. I don't understand why he would do that unless he wanted to be killed. That he wasn't is also strange.Despite all of this, the emotions depicted in this film are real, and the characters seem real as well. The atmosphere is tense - one gets the impression that no one sleeps well, and everyone is under suspicion. One does get an idea of what it was like for the French to live as they had to during the war, surrounded by collaborators and Nazis.This is a case where the script isn't 100% but because of the directing, acting, and production values, it still comes together as a gripping and poignant drama.