It's 1933 Cambridge University, England. One rainy night, wild dilettante Gilda Bessé (Charlize Theron) sneaks into sincere student Guy Malyon (Stuart Townsend)'s room. She stays and they start dating. As a girl, she visited a fortune teller who could only see her 34th year. After her mother's death, she leaves England to travel the world. Guy finally catches up to her in Paris. His girlfriend surrenders and leaves. Gilda is living with mysterious beauty Mia (Penélope Cruz). They form a threesome. Idealistic Guy and Spanish Mia go to fight the fascists in Spain despite Gilda's objection. Mia is killed and Guy returns to Paris to an unforgiving Gilda. During WWII, Guy becomes a British spy while Gilda becomes the mistress to a Nazi officer.
Charlize Theron is magnetic. Stuart Townsend is not innocent enough to be Guy. To me, he needs to play up his character's sincere idealism. I imagine a nerd with glasses with his face in a book. Stuart always has a twinkle and the angry pout of a male model. I guess it was impossible to split the real-life couple apart at that time. Penélope Cruz could play with more heat. Her English may not be good enough at the time but she could let them have it with her Spanish heat. She absolutely has it in reserve but she rarely uses it in this movie. As for the story itself, it wants to be a sprawling romantic war epic. It's long enough but it could never be grand enough. It takes on this vast pulpy romance-novel-style writing but only Theron truly comes out on top. She is always bigger than the movie.
Charlize Theron is magnetic. Stuart Townsend is not innocent enough to be Guy. To me, he needs to play up his character's sincere idealism. I imagine a nerd with glasses with his face in a book. Stuart always has a twinkle and the angry pout of a male model. I guess it was impossible to split the real-life couple apart at that time. Penélope Cruz could play with more heat. Her English may not be good enough at the time but she could let them have it with her Spanish heat. She absolutely has it in reserve but she rarely uses it in this movie. As for the story itself, it wants to be a sprawling romantic war epic. It's long enough but it could never be grand enough. It takes on this vast pulpy romance-novel-style writing but only Theron truly comes out on top. She is always bigger than the movie.