FrangipaniMozzie I watched this just to pass a spare evening when I was ill. It's not tremendously well-made, for I agree with other reviews in that it uses formulaic plots and is often a poor representation of World War 2 and 1940's life. I also found the characters and plot lines were poorly conceived and hard to relate to, not to mention the hideous amount of soapy melodrama of nasty characters bashing another; hardly profound story-telling. However, I'm not completely bashing this as nonsense that isn't worth anyone's time, for it is an entertaining and interesting drama story to watch, just don't expect a masterpiece. It's a typical BBC costume drama for Sunday evenings.

hjmsia49 This little film has an interesting premise that fails to meet its potential. The story of a British war bride's displacement to Canada should have made an interesting film but it too often sags in spots. I felt the excellent cast was wasted. When Lily (Anna Friel) arrives at that desolate farm in Alberta, my first thought was- wait till she experiences an Alberta winter in that shack. Unfortunately, though she is there for a long time waiting for her husband, it seems to be endless summer, never a hint of snow. The English and Canadian stereotypes are too pronounced and almost comical at times. Finally, the ending was too contrived and I found hard to believe that cosmopolitan Lily would ever be happy in that environment.

Hatman1247 Anna Friel stars in classy wartime drama The War Bride. She plays Lily, an orphan who suddenly finds herself married, with child and living with hostile in-laws in the wilds of Canada. Thematically similar to Friel's Land Girls, this is a much more accomplished affair. Her star turn is well complimented by Brenda Fricker and Molly Parker as her agitated in- laws. In what could have been a very pedestrian story, timing is key. Director Lyndon Chubbuck handles this carefully, leaving it until wartime London has become familiar to whip us away to Canada and then leaving it until Lily is finally at home to rock the boat again. To guide us through this we are offered no easy timescale; no regular radio broadcasts counting down the end of the war, no montage of letters to mark the time Lily and Charlie (Aden Young) are apart. A quick blast of a public information film dissolves into Lily arriving in Canada and the rest of the film rests almost entirely on Friel's performance. Portraying a delicate balance of European femme fatal and ordinary London lass, she gets it right every time.Additional to her fish out of water dilemma is Lily's growing attraction to local boy Joe (Loren Dean). Lily, who dresses in risqué clothing to provoke the old-fashioned community, is continually referred to as a 'tart' and because of Friel's balanced performance and the juxtaposition of modern and wartime values the film's ending is genuinely uncertain. This is a war-story with no war. The only death takes place off camera, the only major disfigurement is the result of polio not violence. With no pretensions to heroics or history, The War Bride is a simple story, well told.

Tom Murray The War Bride is a beautiful and inspiring drama, beautifully photographed, with superb acting and full of personal growth. Lily, an English girl, marries Charlie, a Canadian WWII soldier from northern Alberta, who lives on a "big ranch on the prairies". That sounds good to Lily but when she is sent to Canada for the duration of the war, the reality is very different. She is stuck with a grieving mother-in-law and a crippled sister-in-law, who feed off each others' bitterness and depression. The ranch is an unproductive farm with run-down buildings. Lily is horrified but decides to make the best of it and does very well indeed. If you like this film, then see Cold Comfort Farm (1995), a similar story and an intelligent comedy.