We all go to the Forest Rec Parkrun.
L runs while Doggo and MD retrieve the balls I chuck. We then take both the
dogs in the cafĂ© for a drink and a bacon sandwich (well, that’s just me), where both dogs are saintly.
Then L heads off to an exercise class whilst I take the boys home and
then head off to the match. It’s another early kick off for another TV game,
this time the local derby against Nottingham Forest.
Derby dominate the first half but cannot score, so Forest do
it for them with a cracking own goal. We sip out half time drinks feeling smug
as this is so easy.
Derby lose a player at half time, as the influential Will
Hughes goes off. At the same Forest appear to substitute their entire woeful team
for something much better and batter Derby in the second half. They equalise
with fifteen minutes to go and then strike the winner two minutes into injury time. Yet
again, once Derby scale the summit of the league they wobble off again.
Later we are at the cinema again.
The film opens pre-war, Brittain (Alicia Vikander) is living
in Buxton Derbyshire from where she watches her brother Edward (Taron Egerton) and
his friends Victor (Colin Morgan) and Geoffrey (Jonathan Bailey) getting ready
to head off into the world to better themselves. Convention dictates that she
will not follow them but will instead get married and raise a family. Given that
particular career path investing in her future would be a waste, so her father (Dominic
West) initially rejects her desire to attend Oxford University.
Then
when he is persuaded to relent and she passes the entrance
examination, the outbreak of war means she will go there alone. By now
she is
courting her brother’s close friend Roland (Kit Harington) but Roland
will not be joining her at Oxford because he is heading off to war along
with the
others.
Unable to focus on her studies at Oxford, Vera abandons her
hard-earned place to sign up to be a nurse where she tends to the wounded and dying
of both sides.
Sadly
for the film, it is only at this point that the story
develops any bite. Until now, it's all been rather unadventurous and
frankly
quite dull when such a tale should have been at least inspiring. Never
does anyone seem
to develop much passion for anything, least of all Vera herself and
especially not for her passionless
heavily chaperoned romance with Roland. If not inspiring it could at
least have
been harrowing but by the time we finally move to the trenches for a bit
of
much missed muck and blood it’s all far too late. Even when the bodies
of friends and family start to stack up it often feels like it's no big
deal.
Even one possible great scene with Vera speaking German to a
dying soldier who had previously been shooting at her own side comes over as overly
tame.
The whole film is all rather too much like a Sunday evening costume
drama on the BBC, so I guess it was no surprise to see the BBC’s name on the opening
titles. An opportunity missed.
(Saturday 17th January)
(Saturday 17th January)
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