The Good: Surprisingly engaging story, Interesting characters, Decent pacing, Interesting DVD bonus features.
The Bad: One or two little acting issues, Could always use more DVD features!
The Basics: A worthy winner of the Best Picture, Mrs. Miniver explores the human cost of World War II just as it was actually breaking out!
One of the things that continues to surprise me most about classic films is how on top of reality they were at the time they were made. So, while our documentaries like Fahrenheit 9/11might give future generations the hope that we were not all living in ignorance of the Bush Administration's abuses of power, contemporary films are likely to be viewed as startlingly neglectful of our reality. By contrast, it is hard to argue how the world was not aware of the danger of the Nazis with films like Casablanca going so far as to mention concentration camps. In a similar vein, movies like Mrs. Miniver might seem like propaganda today, but they opened American eyes to the reality of the fight that England and France was having with Germany while the United States generally kept to its own.
Released in 1942 and the winner of the 1942 Best Picture Oscar, Mrs. Miniver is a surprisingly astute character drama set in 1939 England. Exploring the early days of World War II from a British perspective, Mrs. Miniver illustrates a strong anti-Nazi story that does as much to show how strong women are than it does to show how bad the Nazis were. The film works both as a period piece for the time that even the writers knew was already gone and an enduring piece about the strength of one woman and her family.
In the spring of 1939, Mrs. Miniver is preoccupied with the joys of splurging on a new hat when she is pulled aside by a ticket collector and shown a rose he has bred in her honor. At the same time, her husband Clem is spending his money on a new car and the two are very much in love. When their son, Vin, returns from Oxford with a strong socialist leaning and the desire to learn all that he can, he spars with a neighborhood gal, Carol, who comes to ask Mrs. Miniver to have the rose in her name withdrawn from a contest in town so her grandmother might continue winning. After a summer apart, Vin and Carol are reunited and their passion begins to grow anew. It is at that point that the Germans invade Poland and England declares war on Germany.
Vin joins the Royal Air Force and returns to propose to Carol before he is called off to fight the Nazis. As the war begins to turn against the British, Clem is called off to help with the boat rescue at Dunkirk. In his absence, Mrs. Miniver encounters a downed German pilot, disarms him and turns him over to the police. Advocating with Carol's grandmother, Mrs. Miniver encourages Vin's marriage to Carol and she waits for Vin to return from the war. As the war goes on, the family adapts to constant bombings and the turmoil of war.
Mrs. Miniver is an intriguing piece and one based upon a novel (which I have not read). In addition to having a delightfully strong female protagonist - when the film is not focused on Vin and Carol - there is a strange lack of resolution that comes out of necessity. Because the war was still well underway, there was only optimism about how it might be resolved and as a result, Mrs. Miniver rightly focuses on the characters. It also realistically captures the changing times and the difference between Clem and his wife at the outset of the film and as it progresses is compelling. Mrs. Miniver goes from a lighthearted tale about splurging to spending money on fans that keep those in their bunkers alive. There is a delicious sense of wryness to the film when Clem shows off the indicator on the fan of gas attacks when he illustrates that when the sensor indicates gas coming through the vent, the solution will lead those inside the bunker to eventually suffocate.
What Mrs. Miniver does best is what the best Modernist works do, which is to illustrate the changing world and the contrasts of life before and during World War II. The inclusion of Alice In Wonderland accurately expresses the feeling at the time that people were living in a surreal world that was unsettling and watching Clem and her husband cling to one another and the hope that Vin will return is both compelling and heartwrenching. Particularly unsettling is the first bomb attack the family survives in their new bomb shelter.
Carol and Vin have a charming love story that offers an enduring sense of hope through much of the movie. Again, women are presented in an enlightened and worthwhile light in that Carol is a realist and holds her own intellectually and emotionally with Vin. Defying the stereotypes, Carol is not just bubbly or an accessory, she is a fully realized character and she has as much charisma as Vin does, making her very easy to watch.
The film also works because of the contrasts between the war story and the simple story about a rose-breeding competition. Put off because of the attacks, the flower club delays meeting and giving their awards, which the Lady Belden has consistently won. The normalizing of the event opposite the war scenes provides a sense of what the British tried to do - psychologically - to survive the war. It is both informative and entertaining now to watch. Similarly, the intrusion into the resolution to that scene by the war creates a very real sense of the impact and power of the war.
As for the acting, one need not know the backstory of Greer Garson and Richard Ney to know that Garson's acting for her on-screen son is not quite right. When Vin kisses Carol goodbye and then kisses his mother the same way, it seems more odd than dated. That said, most of the film Ney has great on-screen chemistry with Teresa Wright, who plays Carol. Similarly, Garson and Walter Pidgeon make a decent on-screen couple as Kay and Clem Miniver. Pidgeon especially peppers his performance with looks at Greer that create in his character a sense that he is still seeing the woman he initially married and fell in love with.
Even so, Mrs. Miniver is not flawless on the acting front. Greer is caught at several times looking at Ney on-screen in a way that a mother does not typically look at her son. Ney carries his scenes as Vin with a natural charisma that is exciting to watch and makes it fairly obvious how he was cast as Vin. Ney's scenes are enjoyable to watch and he embodies young love quite well.
But much of the film ends up hinging on the performance of Greer Garson, who won the Oscar for Best Actress. Garson is good at playing both the freespending wife and the empowered woman who realistically captures a German soldier. Garson is also able to play strong emotions opposite nothing but a sound effect and this is where she earns her pay. Garson is brilliant when she must play Kay simply listening to a bomb falling and the look of terror in her eyes is compelling.
On DVD, Mrs. Miniver features Garson getting her Oscar as well as the original shorts that preceded the film in theaters. The trailer for Mrs. Miniver is also included and while these are all enjoyable, one finds themselves wishing there were more to this DVD presentation. I, for one, would have loved a commentary track.
Even so, Mrs. Miniver is a wonderful film that stands up over time, creating a timeless character study and setting it opposite a real, budding and immediate war.
[As a winner of the Best Picture Oscar, this film is part of W.L.'s Best Picture Project, which is available by clicking here! Please check it out!]
For other films where warfare plays a big part, please check out my reviews of:
Charlie Wilson’s War
Dear John
The Men Who Stare At Goats
8/10
For other film reviews, please visit my index page by clicking here!
© 2010, 2009 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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