The Land Girls (1998)

Very well executed

Good movie but grossly overrated

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

It is based on the book but has been improved by the deletion of several chapters and minor characters. The best scenes and dialogue have come from the screen-play writers too.In 1941 the British government set up the Women's Land Army to encourage women to work in the factories and farms so as to release men to join the armed services. So Stella (Catherine McCormack), Prue (Anna Friel) and Ag (Rachel Weisz) come to the farm of John and Faith Lawrence in Dorset. All three get involved with Joe, the handsome son of the Lawrences. The sex scenes are ridiculous, but also hilarious and thankfully, much fewer and briefer than those in the book.There are several really good scenes showing the relationship between the girls and between them and the farmers. In one, Stella asks for some time off to see her fiancé, "No", growls the farmer, "there's too much work to be done". Stella doesn't say anything, the look says it all... disappointment. Then, when Stella starts the tractor up and begins to plough the special paddock, we see the farmer striding towards her, she looks so worried. "He's going to shout at me... send me home...". But no, he muses about his beloved paddock then "You'd better finish it, you're doing a good job". Another is when Stella sees her badly injured fiancé and then has to decide whether to go back to the farm, we can see her thinking... "He needs me... I have to stay by him".Friel is sparkling mostly, but gets the really sad scene when told her new husband has been killed, and Weisz gets a great line when she meets Desmond just as he has to leave... "We've only just met, you couldn't possibly ask me to wait for you". He does, and she does. How sweet.Near the beginning, the very old farmhand (in the actor's one and only film) "The dark one takes my fancy, she reminds me of a girl I met in 1899"!!! The final scene, in the orchard at a post-war reunion with Stella and Joe, is so poignant as they reflect on what might have been. "I waited for that train for a week... I'm still waiting", says Joe. Their hands touch for a second, then they walk away.I rate it a 10 because I can follow the story easily, I can recognise all the characters without wondering who they are or what they are doing, the acting is faultless from all the cast, and there are the good scenes with excellent dialogue.One tiny fault, the girls arrive with suitcases that wouldn't hold a quarter of the clothes they subsequently wear!

If you are entertained by a movie that is historically INCORRECT and is just this side of soft porn then by all means spend your time watching the film. You will learn nothing about World War 2 England, and certainly nothing about the moral standards to which English women adhered during that time of war. Whoever is responsible for this rot was out to apply the lax moral standards of today to a long ago but far more chaste period. I utterly detest movies that simply ignore the past for the sake of getting an R rating and in so doing hoping to get a larger audience. I lasted all of 15 minutes before I guess where this plot was going. You'd be far better off watching the Weather Channel. At least you'll get some useful information. Or play with your pet if you have one.

Stella (Catherine McCormack), Prue (Anna Friel) and Ag (Rachel Weisz) play three "land girls", volunteers to carry on the agricultural work of the men. On the farm they find love, conflict, friendship and cows. The film is more of a relationship drama of those left behind than an account of the second world war.That said it is an interesting piece - not only is it different to have a WW2 film from a British point-of-view but also from a woman's point of view. It is interesting to see how those left behind acted with their lives and their war efforts - how close to the truth this account is, anyone's guess, it's a bit unrealistic because so many girl's experiences are crammed into the story of these three. The story is good regardless with the tangled relationships creating the glut of the plot, however the many tangled love stories do get a bit much at times but the themes of love, loss and British spirit during wartime tend to make up for it.The performance from the lead trio are mixed, Weisz is a bit stereotyped as an upper-class woman ("rotter", "jolly good" etc) but gets better as her character develops. Friel is good as Prue who starts as the roughest of the group but is touched by the events in her life. McCormack (Stella) is meant to be the core of the story with her interactions with the farmers, especially the son Joe (Steven Mackintosh), but she plays it a little over earnest for my liking. Mackintosh has the most complex role and carries it off very well with the best performance in the film.The film's conclusion is a mix of neat, tidy endings and some more emotional moments that more realistically depict the damage that the conflict caused on the people left behind.Overall the film is not amazing but is an interesting account of WW2 from a different point of view, some of the events are a little stereotyped and lack a realistic feel but generally the film carries the emotions that many will have experienced at the time.

The plot is very realistic, the activities fun to watch, the ending hard to guess. Typical British film with hard to follow accents, bawdy behavior, average camera work. Overall a nice way to kill an hour or two.