The War Bride (2001)

Fantastic!

When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

I can't think of one thing wrong with this movie? Oh...(speaking as a total teenage girl here,) NOT ENOUGH ADEN YOUNG! (ok now that that's over with....) I first became interested in this movie when I first become interested in Loren Dean, who plays Joe in this film. I searched for it everywhere on DVD, couldn't find it, and after a year or so gave up. 3 months ago, I watch Space Cowboys, also with Loren Dean, and I wonder to myself "Hmm, what ever happened with The War Bride." So I hop on Netflix.com and lo and behold, there it is. I immediately move it to the top of my queue, and within 2 days I have it.I rush into my room, slam it into the DVD Player (the one in our living room wasn't working) and began to watch this incredible movie. First off, my teenage girl senses kicked in and I'm drooling over Aden Young in no time flat! Anna Friel, who'd I'd seen in one other film just the night before, was amazing as Lily. I probably would have acted the same way as she did. I don't know. If people talked about me the way they talked about her, I definitely would have worn the red dress! ****SPOILERS*****My favorite scene I think has to be where Charley breaks down after showing Lily his journal. A sucker for men unafraid to show their emotions I cried right along with him. As well as when Sofie comes to the house after learning of Louie's death. I cried with Lily and Sofie and said along with Lily "Why didn't you tell me?" Brenda Fricker has been one of my favorites ever since she was The Bird Lady in "Home Alone 2." I was thrilled to learn she was in this movie. ***SPOILER***I love the part where Lily fixes everyone dinner, and everyone except Joe and Betty (Fricker) are sitting back away from their plate while Joe and Betty are leaning over their plates and loving every bite! My Dad sat on the couch watching it with me a few days later and said, rather loudly, "WELL...MAMA'S ENJOYING IT!" Anna Friel, Brenda Fricker, Aden Young and Loren Dean, as well as everyone else cast in this wonderful movie was perfect for the role they were given. I loved every minute of this wonderful movie. I recommend that if you ever see it anywhere, to rent or to buy, that you rent or buy it immediately! It is one of my favorites!

Lily (Anna Friel) and Sophie (Julie Cox) are childhood friends who have grown up together in a London orphanage. It is now wartime London during the Blitz and the two women both have whirlwind romances with two Canadian soldiers. Lily falls in love with Joe, marries him and gets pregnant almost immediately before he is sent off to fight. Lily, along with many other women in England, becomes classified as a war bride and for safety reasons emigrates to join her husband's family in Canada. Arriving with her baby daughter in Alberta, she is met with a hostile reception by her new mother-in-law (Brenda Fricker) and sister-in-law (Molly Parker) and begins a fresh, wholly alien rural life on a remote farm. Lily is nevertheless a spirited, young woman (Anna Friel is excellent in the main role), refuses to be ground down by her new circumstances and successfully fights to become part of a very insular community. The War Bride is a fascinating, touching and powerfully authentic drama filled with good humour. The film also has excellent production values, clean and crisp visuals, and is carefully directed by Lyndon Chubbuck.

The film makers have orchestrated a profound and moving journey, a film in which ideas and themes emerge from the interaction of human beings, and not in competition with them. Anna Friel, Brenda Fricker and Molly Parker form as potent a feminine triumvirate as the movies have seen in a very long time, powerful actresses who bring as much richness to the film's silences as to its words.Superficially, the film could be seen as yet another variation on the "liberating outsider" scenario (a popular feminist theme exploited most recently in "Chocolat"), although in "The War Bride" there is considerably more going on than Lily simply teaching her in-laws how to cut loose and live a little. The weightier theme, which develops steadily throughout the film, deals with the inescapable effects of a global war and the extent to which a conflict can still wreak emotional havoc on those furthest removed from actual combat.

The War Bride is a beautiful and inspiring drama, beautifully photographed, with superb acting and full of personal growth. Lily, an English girl, marries Charlie, a Canadian WWII soldier from northern Alberta, who lives on a "big ranch on the prairies". That sounds good to Lily but when she is sent to Canada for the duration of the war, the reality is very different. She is stuck with a grieving mother-in-law and a crippled sister-in-law, who feed off each others' bitterness and depression. The ranch is an unproductive farm with run-down buildings. Lily is horrified but decides to make the best of it and does very well indeed. If you like this film, then see Cold Comfort Farm (1995), a similar story and an intelligent comedy.