Head in the Clouds

Head in the Clouds (Director: John Duigan)

Writer/director John Duigan has done many films, none of them are exceptionally well-known. He did Sirens in 1994. Others you may have heard: Flirting (1991), Wide Sargasso Sea (1993), The Journey of August King (1995).

World War II once again serves the backdrop of some terribly intense love story, this time the Spanish Civil War is thrown in for good measure, as this film sweeps across England, France, and Spain. It begins with Gilda (Charlize Theron) running away from someone at Cambridge and running into Guy's (Theron's husband, Stuart Townsend) dorm to hide out. It turns into a love affair and broken when Gilda goes to Paris.

In Paris, with pre-World War rumblings beginning, politically-minded Guy searches for Gilda and meets her again after receiving a note from her. She's become a photographer and is shacking up with some dude for convenience, not that it deters the once-interrupted love affair from lighting up again. One of Gilda's models, Mia (Penelope Cruz) rooms with Guy at his rent-a-place in Paris, and then they all move in together.

So, here's where the firecracking, hot, menage a trois action occurs, right? Hell no. This movie is more important than that! It's just a basic love story with Guy and Gilda, while Mia tries unluckily to have her boyfriends as well, until Spanish Civil War causes Guy and Mia to go to Spain and fight the cause against the Fascists. Guy soldiers, Mia nurses, and Gilda feels betrayed that the two have left her.

And here's where the movie becomes intensely boring, as it has nothing to say about war in general, just that it's being fought, and Guy and Mia are helping out, and life changes when World War II begins. After watching the film, I realize that the character of Mia could have completely been cut out. The love affair that is supposed to be the heart of the film and is the driving force behind the plot has no impact, emotionally, since Guy and Gilda never build the solid relationship in the film (and this is the filmmakers' fault) that is supposed to make the separation heartwrenching. Gilda's apathy and Guy's political beliefs serve as aphrodisiac-killers, and with a little subtlety or a scene or two expressing the love that the film wants you to believe exists, this movie would have been fine. The film seems more interested in making the fact that Gilda loves Guy a mild surprise. But why?

All the performances are good, but it doesn't matter. The last 40 minutes of this movie bored me completely. I was taken out of the film, and that may be the largest sin entertainment can make.