The Land Girls

The British homefront during World War II has inspired some fine movies, from Mrs. Miniver to Hope and Glory; The Land Girls is not one of them. Director David Leland has softened since his audacious Wish You Were Here (1987), and his new film about a trio of young London women from disparate backgrounds working on a struggling farm lacks edge and originality. Catherine McCormack is bland as the naive bourgeoise providing the obligatory, purplish voiceover narrative, and Rachel Weisz is plucky as the virginal upper-class twit; only Anna Friel as the working woman/slut offers some depth, passion, and interest. The trio battle and bond in a family manor that looks alternately lush and torpid; it's all like Cold Comfort Farm without the arch comedy. With few exceptions -- distantly observed air raids and the shocking crash of a German fighter in a field -- the war takes second place to their mildly resolved class conflicts and misadventures in finding husbands. Aspiring to be bittersweet, it's merely sweet; The Land Girls would have done better had it shunned airy stereotypes and stuck closer to the soil.

-- Peter Keough