I struggled with finding a reason that this film is so flat - and now believe it is Stephen Poliakoff. Replace his script and direction, then this film should triumph, because I couldn't fault the cast, the scenery, the musical score or the concept. Read the reviews by zombequin and Burgess-Hulme, and you have the detailed analyses with which I concur. I can only imagine the film in the hands of Hitchcock or Spielberg; what a difference that would have made. It's worth a watch, if only to see your favourite actors, but definitely no encore!

Glorious 39 is an engaging atmospheric conspiracy thriller. The story unfolds in a very involving manner keeping the suspense intact until the very last frame. Tension is really well maintained through out the movie, as soon as the story kicks and the paranoia sets in it just increases and deepens with each frame until the final credit rolls.As the lead Romola Garai gives this gripping piece of work its intensity. She never hits a false note and is the key reason because of which the paranoia and tension are so incredibly palpable.Glorious 39 is period piece and a engaging conspiracy thriller, that is narrated in a old-school manner of film-making were the script complements the visuals and the performances lends in to make the narration even more engaging.

The only reason that I can summon to explain why this movie bombed in the UK, is that there are either too many that are ignorant of history or they are ashamed.While the characters may have been fictional, the political facts are very real. Chamberlain and many citizens were too short-sighted to see that Hitler would stop his desire to rule the world because of a "deal" with England. Churchill knew he would not.This movie reminds us that while we may not want war, there are times when it is necessary to preserve ourselves and our country.Well written, well acted, brutally honest. I recommend, but only if you can understand reality!

Plot: On the eve of WWII, an English aristocrat stumbles on a plot involving her family and the appeasement of Hitler.This is the sort of British film that leaves you in despair as to the state of our film industry. It is long, ponderous, badly written, badly made, badly acted, the plot is risible, and nobody went to the cinema to watch it (with good reason). For a thriller there are no thrills (indeed, it is soporific). Many good British actors (and some rubbish ones) give a very poor showing (and in the case of Christopher Lee, are barely in it). And for a supposedly intelligent story there is very little intelligence: the conspiracy is stupid, nearly everyone gets bumped off without any hue and cry, and the ending is so trite that it's laughable. It is, in short, embarrassing to watch. Essentially it is another left- wing (and tax-payer funded) attack on the British aristocracy and their involvement in appeasement (even though they were quite right that the Second World War meant the end of Britain as a great power). Unsurprisingly, I don't think I've ever seen a film about how British Communists, under orders from Moscow, spent the entirety of 1939-41 actually on the side of the Nazis - but then they meant well, didn't they?...Frankly, this is a vanity project for a writer whose best years are behind him, but who keeps getting money shoved his way by an idiotic (mono)cultural elite. One to avoid like the plague.