This film is maybe a lost treasure, and it deserves to be more well known than it actually is. This is a fascinating and intense spy movie, and the plot takes place during the second world war. Donald Sutherland plays the part of the spy very convincing, ice cold and a character with a ruthless determination to get what he wants, really at all costs. The film is very well done, and eventually ends up as a story of lost love, and hard measures that needs to be taken. The casting is brilliant, and I think the films atmosphere really manages to take you back in a world in war, and different peoples way of life in these circumstances. This makes this film authentic and complete. (sorry about my English)

This is a WWII espionage thriller. The story in the movie moves very fast until it gets to Storm Island where things slow down a bit. The focus is on Donald Sutherland's character, then on Storm Island, when it should have been followed more, particularly how he got to Storm Island. The ending of the book was eliminated. I thought adding the ending of the book and how the ending came to, would have added a more of a personal love for what was going to happen to all of the characters. I was wanting for the demise of Faber more because I knew what Lucy was going through and who she would meet in the end of the story. The A story moved fast and didn't fit with the B story at first. The B story wasn't strong at first. When it came together it seemed thrown together. In the book it came together better.

Richard Marquand directs this well-wrought adaptation of Ken Follett's bestselling book concerning a vicious German spy on assignment in London during WWII who takes refuge with an unsuspecting British couple. Donald Sutherland does superlative work in the tricky lead, second-guessing every situation while seducing naïve Kate Nelligan in the bargain, without regard to her smarts and efficiency. The film's atmosphere is purposefully cold, and Marquand is intentionally careful and calculating, but those who stick with this will find the plot-threads absorbing and the performances extremely effective. Ardent admirers of Follett's novel were unhappy with the woman-in-distress finale, yet it certainly works for the picture, and Nelligan emerges as an actress of uncanny grace and bravery. **1/2 from ****

I loved the first 100 minutes of the film. This is an old-school war movie, back in the days where there was a truly unavoidable war and the belief in a higher cause. Personal dramas take second place to the consequences of losing the war and the responsibility that entails on both sides. But people are people and no matter how noble or cold-blooded, there is always that conflict between duty and desire.For the most part, the film is a taut yet believable thriller. Everything that Donald Sutherland does is completely in character, as are the reactions of those around him. The historical details are fairly accurate (except for the hyperbole about losing the war if the D-Day site were known) which is something rare these days. The triangle is believable, as are the conflicts that develop as we learn about our protagonists.But then we get to the climactic scene at the end. The actions of our confused heroine as she flees from Sutherland are a bit annoying but explainable - and it all could have worked except for the presence of the child. I might believe that Sutherland would leave her alive (though it might have worked better had she not cut off his fingers..). I might possibly believe that she could fall in love with a man enough in two days to forget that he killed her husband, and murdered her shepherd friend. I just can't believe that after this man threatens her child that she would feel that strongly for him. She's not *that* weak especially after she had just shocked herself in an attempt to prevent him from completing his mission. So the entire stumbling sequence to get to the scene at the end where they gaze into each others eyes is *so* contrived. While such weak plot devices are everywhere these days, the lazy scripting is an insult to the rest of the film.But if you ignore that bit - it's very good.