Hands up! I slept through the last 30 minutes of this pile of excrement. It might have the best ending in the history of cinema but I was not prepared to sacrifice another 30 minutes of my life to find out because the previous 300 hours (well that's what it seemed like)were excruciatingly boring. Badly acted, badly scripted rubbish. I accuse those of you who gave this film a good review of wasting more than two precious hours of my life.HOW DARE YOU.LIFE IS TOO SHORT FOR YOU AND YOUR PATHETIC OPINIONS.Tenth line of text added.

This movie had potential - a modern twist on a romantic ww2 melodrama. If only some one had given the writer a few pointers on how to write a good old yarn.The leads are attractive - Penelope and Charlize have never looked so beautiful. They really look good in their 20s/30s costumes and hairdos. Stuart Townsend is competent and everyone's favorite Nazi Thomas Kretschmann is here.It is quite explicit in part but not too vulgar.Some of the sets are deliberately theatrical and sound stage looking. But if is quite attractively filmed on the whole.The ending is the real let down. Since it was a romantic melodrama would it have been so bad to have a nice happy ending? In the end you feel you wasted your time.

This movie is an "epoch drama" about the romance story between the two main characters, Guy (Stuart Townseed) and Gilda (Charlize Theron). It all started in 1933 in Cambridge University where they met each other for the first time. Though, they were together just for one night. But it was kind of love at first sight and along the movie they will be together and separated for many times. It's their destiny… However, to their love one more soul will be joined. Her name is Mia (Penelope Cruz). For a part of the movie they will be a love triangle, but then the war separated them…You need to have some acknowledgment about the European's history of the 30's and 40's, and about the wars of that period, to understand the movie's pace and the plot's background. You need that to follow this movie and understand its settings and the behaviors of the mains characters. Just understanding the ideals which are related to the social conflicts and wars of that period we can follow their actions and attitudes… and also the "betrayals"…The pace is a bit confusing because the story passes between 1933 and 1944 and along this period of time we watch several scenes in different "times" and "places". The plot is always "jumping" in time and space… It turns out a bit confusing because if we watch one 5 minutes' scene in 1933 then, suddenly, it quickly moves to one year later. Then we watch one more couples of scenes in 1936 and it quickly moves to 1940, for example. The same happens with the settings. If one scene is in England, sooner the other will be in Paris… The costumes and the scenario's production are excellent, which makes this movie a good one if we relate it to the history's genre. However the plot disappointed me a little bit, not only because it's a bit confusing, but especially because it was too different from what I expected. I think I was expecting a different (and also deeper) love triangle story. Something more intense about the three characters, and not that this love triangle was just a "part" of the story/movie, as it is.

While this is certainly not my favorite movie. I loved that it was set in France and England (also has Spain too)in the 1930ish through 40's. The clothes are worth seeing this movie alone. Charlize Theron is without a doubt one of the top five most beautiful working actresses. It is impossible not to look at her. She plays the rich heiress Gilda Besse who has captured the heart of Guy( Stuart Townsend). She adds three to her company with the Spanish nurse in training Mia (Penelope Cruz). Gilda meets Mia while she is aspiring to be a photographer and Mia is her lovely model.Gilda is a complex woman who is torn from these two people who she loves most in the world due to the war. She is a wealthy woman who keeps up her wealthy lifestyle by taking comfort in a German officers company. Is she really a Nazi? Charlize was perfect for this role she looked incredible and walked like a stylish wealthy beauty. It must be said for however vain or cold Gilda seems she really does love Guy and Mia. Guy, who is somewhat telling the story is a little lost to me. He clearly loves Gilda and is an idealistic man. The actor who portrayed him is Stuart Townsend and I have not seen any of his other works. All I know is that he is apparently Charlize's real life boyfriend. He played his part well.Mia is played by Penelope Cruz. It is a shame Cruz cannot quite act as well in English as she can in Spanish. She is a terrific actress in her Spanish films, but just flat out stinks in any Hollywood production she has been in. Her accent is distracting, but in this film she is Spanish and therefore it is authentic. She is certainly pretty and is a lovely darker counterpart to the blonde Charlize.This is a film that is not quite terrific, but again it is visually pretty and the whole menage a trois between the three main characters is touching.