LAND GIRLS
Reviewed by Harvey Karten, Ph.D. Gramercy Pictures Director: David Leland Writer: Keith Dewhurst Cast: Catherine McCormack, Rachel Weisz, Anna Friel, Steven Mackintosh
Ask schoolchildren today for the name of America and England's great enemy in World War II and you'd likely as notg get the answer, "Russia." There was a time not so long ago that every schoolkid knew the correct reply, and for a select few who want to delve more deeply into a sidelights of the era, some more details on the conflict is welcome. In his film "The Land Girls," David Leland provides fascinating coverage of a little-known facet of the struggle in his Rosie- the-Riveter sort of movie of British women who volunteered for farm work in order to free young, male tillers for the front-- and incidentally, to afford a new kind of freedom for the workers. The women, not themselves eligible to go into actual combat, provided a much needed service whether as volunteers or draftees, squeezing cow udders and turning over the soil so that the brave soldiers and the folks back home could be nourished with their accustomed staples.
While only a documentary would try to focus on the actual work on the granges of the brave island nation, Leland correctly underscores romantic motifs in his involving work which, while not being a spitfire action adventure by any stretch, provides insight into a now-forgotten drama which unfolded during the war years.
While moviegoers will be reminded of Bruce Beresford's "Paradise Road," a tale of women in Japanese POW camps, Leland's film avoids a kaleidoscopic view by concentrating on just three women of different temperaments to show how their experience changed them forever. Convincingly acted by Catherine McCormack as the romantic Stella, Rachel Weisz as the more cerebral and innocent companion Ag, and Anna Friel as the working-class, talkative Prue, "The Land Girls" traces their years on the farm with its aging owner Mr. Lawrence (Tom Georgeson), his wife (Maureen O'Brien) and their handsome son Joe (Steven Mackintosh). As if to prove that separation from their beaus can turn women as well as men into flirts, Leland hones in on the appeal which young Joe has for the three recruits. Steven Mackintosh, known to lovers of indie movies for his recent role as a transsexual in "Different for Girls," here looks more like a young Peter O'Toole than like Richard Spence's elegant woman, and we quickly accept the fact that this rugged individual, the only eligible male in the vicinity, will soon wind up bedding all three working visitors.
A sentimental rather than edgy film, "Land Girls" exhibits the friendship which develops among the three women who are surprisingly without jealousy despite their competition for the young man's attentions. Despite her engagement to a naval officer and a college graduate, Stella falls in love with the relatively uneducated Joe, who resents his role on the farm and seeks to enter the air force despite a genetic heart condition. In another episode displaying a liaison which takes place across the lines of social class, Ag, a graduate of Cambridge University, loses her virginity to Joe after brazenly but naively asking him, "Will you do me?"
Photographed by Henry Braham in Western England, the film possesses lush production values, using Caroline Amies's period design including a 1940's locomotive which frames the story and some rattling old autos reminiscent of the era. Because there is so little drama of the action-adventure sort, an incident involving the downing of a German plane which crashes into the Lawrence acreage is particularly agitating, dramatizing the love which Joe has grown to feel for Stella and also the compassion which the farmers have for the aircraft's hapless pilot.
Keith Dewhurst and David Leland's screenplay provides for a quiet film which will be appreciated by fans of Masterpiece Theater, though the dialogue is quite accessible and the story an earthy one. It is acted with dignity and humor all-around, a bittersweet tale of a conservative public's acceptance of anomaly during a period of emergency. Not Rated. Running Time: 110 minutes. (C) 1998 Harvey Karten
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