As a director, Gross paints in big, emotive strokes, and though his dialogue often feels too tied to historical fact, this old-fashioned, patriotic war movie has its heart in the right place.
Comment
09/04/09
Passchendaele (2008)
38
%
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:13
Fresh:5
Rotten:8
Average Rating:4.9/10
Synopsis: Set during the height of the First World War, "Passchendaele tells the story of Sergeant Michael Dunne (Paul Gross), a soldier who is brutally wounded in France and returns to Calgary emotionally... [More]
Starring: Gil Bellows, Caroline Dhavernas, Paul Gross, Joe Dinicol
Director: Paul Gross
Reviews for Passchendaele
1 - 15 (sorted by date; Australian critics are listed first)
A kind of Canadian World War I version of Pearl Harbor recast with TV actors and made on a tenth of the budget - yet for all that more endearing than Pearl Harbour.
09/04/09
It’s hard to overstake how unimaginably dreadful is Passchendaele, a First World War drama that does Canada’s already ropey film-making reputation no favours whatsoever.
09/04/09
Top CriticDirector-star Paul Gross may have noble intentions, but his film is plodding, to put it kindly: filled with over-scrubbed sets, glutinous tinkling music, and desperately pedestrian dialogue exchanges.
09/04/09
Top CriticIt is impossible not to be moved by the nightmare of the trenches, but Passchendaele is a frustratingly uneven movie.
09/04/09
A romantic weepie that tugs at the heart strings... In our more cynical age it just feels incredibly corny and obvious although the final 20 minutes amidst the mud and carnage are well-staged.
09/04/09
For most of its length the film keeps to the home front, saving its dramatic switch to the Western Front for the final reel, by which point the plot has nailed its rather novelettish colours to the mast.
09/04/09
Click to read the article
02/27/09
Game, set and dry match
01/28/09
Click to read the article
10/18/08
A poignant and occasionally profound film out of a page in history.
10/17/08
The scenes may be embarrassing, but at least Gross can't be accused of playing it safe.
10/17/08
A war movie that can't make up its mind whether war is bad or something one can be proud of.
10/03/08
Passchendaele hearkens back to war films of decades past, when patriotism, valour and integrity were presented without irony. But it is infused with the stoicism of people who know it is their job to try to find meaning within an insane situation.
09/05/08
Toronto fest opener crudely welds the grisly verisimilitude of Saving Private Ryan to the contempo cultural revisionism of Pearl Harbor but can't forge the disparate tones into a powerful whole.
09/05/08
Top Critic1 - 15 (sorted by date; Australian critics are listed first)
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