Instant Favorite.

A lot more amusing than I thought it would be.

It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

The movie is well shot and seems to be quite acceptable even for wartime romance. Unfortunately it is way too long and leaves strange bitter aftertaste in the end. It somehow starts in nowhere and leads to nowhere. I like the scenery and quite realistic portrayal of the era. The action scenes are, how to describe, weird. They somehow fail to reach their climax. I have hard time to figure out that the first girl has died for example. In one scene hero speaks with her, then she leaves. After that I can hear some sound on background. Then we see some wreckage and hero reads some poetry or something over the grave. Only some scenes after the hero explicitly says "she died". Was it landmine? Was this attack from the enemy? The same happens in the end of the movie. Was the heroine killed? Was she mutilated? Did she try to explain the partisans she worked for intelligence? If not, why? What has actually happened? I have no idea. I do not like the stories "open", I do not like "guessing", especially in that long movies. Very unsatisfying.

A young, impoverished, passionate left-wing Irish student at Cambridge University, Guy Malyon (Stuart Townsend) falls in love with a happy-go-lucky, American-born socialite Gilda Bessé (Charlize Theron). Maylon follows her to 1930s Paris, where she is a professional photographer and where she lives with a Spanish-born nurse named Mia (Penélope Cruz). Maylon and Bessé cohabitate and work together. Inflamed by the injustice of the fascist Falange in the Spanish War, Mia and Maylon leave Paris to fight in the Spanish Civil War. Maylon eventually returns to Paris; he later fights in World War II; and he constantly longs for Bessé.Somewhere, someone commented that this film could have had the tagline, "How world events can mess with your love life." That pretty much sums it up. Maylon wants to be with Bessé, but the great struggle against fascism keeps derailing their relationship. Frankly, the script is ridiculous. In fact, the whole storyline is completely overdone and melodramatic. It seems very contrived. It is as if the screenwriter wanted to tell an epic, dramatic love story against the political events of Europe 1934-1944, but this film doesn't have the heft. It's no "Dr. Zhivago." Additionally, the acting is fairly awful and over-dramatic. I can't believe that two Oscar-worthy actresses needed to act in a movie as absurd as this one. There is nothing subtle about the script that would befit their great acting talents. After seeing this film on cable television, I was so disappointed that I was moved to write the foregoing comment. I would recommend avoiding this film.

(Spoiler) Apparently this is a Theron, movie I missed, and with Penélope Cruz at that, shame on me. I'm glade I caught it. Although by the number of ratings I wasn't alone, but many didn't like it quite as much as I did. Do I love them both so much that I was blind; Gilda was to a T to me? I liked it ?? Not for the romance? I don’t like romance that much. Nor for the flesh? She is beautiful though. Maybe just for the war movie? No ?? OK, maybe it’s the dirty little secret of the resistance bothered people? Too often we killed our best resistance people with instant street justice. That’s what you get for being good at what you do, don't blame the French. Or then maybe the director’s cynicism bothered other people too, you can be sad without being cynical. I do like some cynical symbolism though, “The world turned upside down”, from Spain to Iraq. What do you think? Oh well, I’ll just put this as one of Charlize Theron’s better movies and forget why. It was just a more than good romantic war-spy movie, and as war often does, it ends sad, but why not just leave it at that? Maybe someday I'll change it to a 9, or maybe a 7?

For once, a title that fits perfectly the content. Indeed, "Empty heads" would have been even better, but alas one cannot ask for too many details in the title alone.Basically this movie is only a showcase for beautiful Ms. Theron, who struts around always impeccably made up, and wearing a variety of sexy gowns and hairstyles, just like in a fashion show.If you are a boy, this may be reason enough to have a movie made, but in any other case it is most definitely not enough.Ms. Cruz is also shown in a most favorable light, but it is clear that the only character that really matters is the blonde model, who spends her life sleeping around and changing clothes. Not a chance anybody can really buy the fact that Ms. Theron's character (named Gilda) is a famous photographer or that she in the least care about anybody around her.On these premises, the story falls flat on its face, especially in the last third, which is supposed to be dramatic and where we learn a surprising truth about the allegedly empty-headed Gilda. Unfortunately, if character study means something, it is just plain impossible to believe that Gilda is something else than a self-absorbed, empty-headed, sluttish and opportunistic brat.And so much for the incredibly shallow romance and the lesbian dance – if you enjoy seeing two women flirting with each other on the dance floor go and see "Frida" which is a much better movie.