Passchendaele (2008)

Genre: War/Drama/Romance/History/Action

Starring: Paul Gross, Caroline Dhavernas, Joe Dinicol

We all have heard and watched movies of American, French, British, German and Japanese involvement in the World Wars. This movie shows Canada's involvement in World War I, a war in which she was not directly involved but sent her sons since it came under the British Empire. The movie sets a love story of two separate individuals against the backdrop of the war and all the suffering and emotions that come with it. Sgt. Michael Dunne (Gross) has been asked to returned home since he was diagnosed with neurasthenia and deemed unfit to serve on the battlefield. It was here that he met nurse Sarah Mann (Dhavernas) and instantly felt attracted to her. He was assigned to recruit young men to join the army and one such recruit was Sarah's brother, David (Dinicol). David suffers from asthma and hence cannot serve on the front due to which he cannot get his girlfriends' fathers acceptance who openly ridicules him. The movie shows two men, of different ages, both having their own worries with love and war and both suffering from disorders that disallows them to fight for their country. The movie mixes war and love nicely and brings out the true heartbreak that one must face when war divides love and family. However, the time spent on the romance is slow and stretched which loses audience attention. The movie quickly recovers to offer a decent climax but not the best. The war scenes of gore and bloodshed that may not be watchable for all. A well made movie only needed a more hurtful and emotional climax.

Thumbs up: Good concept

Thumbs down: Slow and dragged at times, climax could be better.

Rating: 6.1/10