THE GREAT ESCAPER
Cert 12A ★★★★ In cinemas now
Five decades after playing a married couple in The Romantic Englishwoman, Sir Michael Caine and Glenda Jackson reunited for this unusual love story.
Caine stepped out of retirement to play the lead, with the late Jackson – in what would be her final screen performance – playing his wife.
And it’s the pair’s wonderfully understated performances and shared chemistry that make this one of the best Brit films of the year.
The romance comes as a surprise because the script is based on a story which inspired patriotic headlines in 2014.
As Barack Obama led commemorations of the 70th anniversary of D-day, it was “great escaper” Bernie Jordan (Caine) who dominated front pages. Without telling staff at his Sussex care home, he had made his own way to northern France to honour fallen comrades.
While Bernie’s trip to France is the motor of the drama, his touching relationship with his terminally ill wife Rene (Jackson) is its beating heart.
In a wonderful early scene in their apartment in a Hove care home, the couple seem to share an almost telepathic understanding.
So, when Bernie learns he was too late with his application for a spot on the Royal British Legion trip to Normandy, they both know what will happen next.
“I couldn’t leave you all on your own,” says the cockney former Royal Navy officer. “Unless you have to,” replies his ailing wife. So with his walking stick in hand and a change of clothes in a carrier bag, the steely old timer makes his early morning escape.
On the ferry, Bernie meets another veteran, a well-spoken former RAF man called Arthur (John Standing), and the pair bond over shared traumas.
As Bernie lays an old ghost to rest, flashbacks detail how he met Rene 60 years earlier, and recall his memories of the beach landings.
There was an outbreak of sniffles in the cinema as Bernie and Arthur encountered a group of German veterans in a Normandy pub.
And when Bernie was reunited with Rene, the rustling of hankies turned into a chorus of whimpers and outright sobs.