THE GUERNSEY LITERARY AND POTATO PEEL PIE SOCIETY
German occupation of the Channel Islands finally gets explored
Certificate 12 Director Mike Newell Cast Lily James, Michiel Huisman, Glen Powell, Jessica Brown Findlay, Katherine Parkinson, Matthew Goode Price £15 Released 27 August
Over the years, Wartime Britain has gradually become its own film genre, with a whole library of films on the subject to choose from. We’ve seen it all, from devastating London bomb sites to countryside evacuations, but it’s rare that cinema presents a glimpse at the German occupation of the Channel Islands, which in the winter of 1944 became the only part of the British Isles to be occupied by the Wehrmacht during World War II. Mike Newell’s comedy-drama The Guernsey Literary And Potato Peel Pie Society fills that gap.
Based on Mary Ann Shaffer’s purely fictitious novel of the same name, it tells the whimsical story of how the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society was accidentally invented in order to keep an illegal pig a secret from the Germans.
With good-natured English author Juliet Ashton
(Lily James) at the centre, the film follows her journey to Guernsey in 1946 after being invited by a member of the society, which she intends to make the subject of an article for The Times Literary Supplement about the benefits of literature. But through making new friends and hearing their stories, Juliet quickly realises there’s a lot more to the society, and indeed to wartime Guernsey, than she first thought.
Though the film is set after the end of World War
II, it features many a flashback into the grim depths of what the war was like for civilians, portraying the horrors of the period. However, it also still manages to be quaint. The juxtaposition of German occupation and friends gathered in a sitting room talking and laughing about books is both unusual and refreshing. The heavy material isn’t overwhelming, and the more sentimental parts aren’t too sentimental. The film is a balancing act – particularly where the drama and the comedy elements are concerned – but one it pulls off nicely.
Most of The Guernsey Literary And Potato Peel Pie Society’s successes are down to its characterisation and its marvellous cast, which is made up of gems of both British drama and comedy. Though certain members are a lot more guarded than others (for good reason), the society gels well and makes for good comfort viewing. It represents the light at the end of a long dark tunnel that is often missing from the war genre.
It feels a little strange describing the film as a war film; World War II may be at the centre of it, but it’s much more about family, community and doing the right thing. That being said, the drama and its gravitas often get lost in the small-scale comedy feel that’s potent throughout the film. It ought to please fans of period pieces and feel-good films to pop on during a rainy day, but fans of war dramas might not know what to make of it. For those looking for something a little different, The Guernsey Literary And Potato Peel Pie Society provides just that.
A fun but emotional look at island life during wartime, and the power of literature.