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Fortunes Of War (DVD)
Year: 1987
Rating: M
Director: James Cellan Jones
Cast: Alan Bennett , Kenneth Branagh, Ronald Pickup, Emma Thompson
Release Date: June 01, 2011
Distributor: Umbrella
The Film: 4.0
FILMINK rates DVDs and Blu-rays out of 5"...benefits from two outstanding actors at its centre..."
Olivia Manning based her series of novels on her war experience with her husband, a Professor in Romania and later in the Middle East. Manning's literary counterpart is Harriet Pringle (Emma Thompson) and her husband Guy (Kenneth Branagh) who arrive in Bucharest on the day Britain declares war on Hitler. When the fascists take control of the government, they flee to Egypt. In these uncertain times, the Pringles find security in the communities of English ex-patriots, who include the eccentric Prince Yakimov (Ronald Pickup, Never Say, Never Again), Lord Pinkrose (Alan Bennett, writer of The History Boys) and airman Simon Boulderstone (Rupert Graves, TVs The Forsyte Saga).
This lavish mini-series, directed by James Cellan Jones (McLibel!) and written by Alan Plater (The Last Of The Blonde Bombshells) benefits from two outstanding actors at its centre, Thompson and Branagh (who later married). They both give pitch-perfect performances, Thompson as the introspective and loving wife to Branagh who is pathologically dependent on the company of others. The story at times does meander, but these two characters keep your attention until the end.
