After finding secret pro-appeasement (for the Nazis) recordings Anne (Garai) becomes involved in a secret, violent conspiracy, set in England in 1939. After one of her friends who speaks out against Hitler is found dead, Anne begins to dig deeper into the reasons for his death. This is a very interesting movie. It is both compelling and slow moving. It is tense but it drags in spots. It kept me watching but my mind did wander a bit. This is overall a good movie but you need to be in the mood for it. You really feel for Anne and the way her life begins to fall apart. I am a fan of historical movies so I really liked that aspect of it. This movie had the feel of a made-for-TV movie, although it would have been an HBO movie with the quality of it. I recommend this but again, it's not for everyone, and you need to be in the mood to watch a movie like this one. I give it a B-.

Would I watch again? - Probably not

From renowned writer and director Stephen Poliakoff, I spotted this film purely because of the actors in the cast, but I was willing to give it a chance because it was rated well also. Basically in present day London, Michael Walton (Toby Regbo) is meeting his older cousins Walter Page (Christopher Lee) and Oliver (Corin Redgrave) to find out more about the sister of his grandmother Celia Keyes (Juno Temple),his great aunt Anne Keyes (Romola Garai). We are taken by flashback to 1939 where Anne is an actress in the beautiful British countryside, and this is at the time when the World War II was beginning. She is in love with Foreign Office official Lawrence (Stardust's Charlie Cox),but after the discovery of some secret recordings on vinyl records, containing conversations of political matter. Soon after hearing and revealing these, and trying to find the origins of the records, the perfect life of Anne starts slowly falling apart, including the death of a good friend, fleeing to London, and being imprisoned by her own father Sir Alexander Keyes (Bill Nighy) and others. The story is a little complicated, because you are not sure if she is going mad, and why it has happening to her, but she is seen alive and elderly by the end of the film in present day. Also starring David Tennant as Hector Haldane MP, Julie Christie as Aunt Elizabeth, Jeremy Northam as Balcombe, Eddie Redmayne as Ralph Keyes, Jenny Agutter as Maud and Notting Hill's Hugh Bonneville as Gilbert. I will admit first that I didn't understand the full story by about halfway through, but the performances by the all British cast, especially Garai, are very good, and there are some memorable moments, so it is certainly not a bad wartime drama. Good!

Trying to make sense of this film is like trying to solve the Times crossword using clues provided by a tabloid compiler. You keep feeling there's surely something substantial here if only someone would actually say or do something helpful. Apart from costumes and a couple of vintage cars there's not too much thought gone into creating an authentic 'period' feel. The central idea - the protagonist starting off in the real world and gradually becoming aware of unreality followed by a feeling of persecution and being the only one sane enough to prevent a conspiracy from coming to fruition - has become a cliché and requires something extra special to make it work and retain interest. A feeling of naturalism is totally absent and in its place are a lot of actors who have clearly been instructed to 'act' slightly menacing whilst seeming perfectly reasonable. In short, a disaster.