Review of The Captive Heart

BEWARE! A SPOILER re the ENDING. A Czech, escaping from the Nazis, Michael Redgrave, (the nominal star and lead character), assumes the identity of a dead British officer to evade punishment. It's a perfect part for Redgrave, who must be one of the most diffident performers in the history of the movies. What does he actually want or feel? And he's not fascinatingly enigmatic, he's irritating. Redgrave's character is distant, unhappy with who he is, even unhappy with who he might be - at the most, 20% comfortable in his own skin. (Assuming someone else's identity seems to be what an actor like Redgrave must do, so he can live in an agony of semi-persona.) Half way through this curious, but interesting film, the Redgrave character, the Czech, decides to take up a correspondence with the wife of the British officer whose identity he's assumed. Then he'll have something to live for, someone to communicate with. After all, all the 'normal' chaps have a girl to write to. He doesn't seem to consider how much emotional harm he might do the wife, who believes she is corresponding with a formerly cold husband, who has suddenly found a warmth in his poetic descriptions of everyday life in the camp. Her descriptions of life in their little English village are read out to the chaps in the camp, and at last Mr Diffident seems to belong to something, even if it is all a lie. Meanwhile, there are various other love affairs, which have been interrupted by the war; the male halves of these affairs are in the camp; all the affairs are on rocky ground. All are swiftly, abruptly and unconvincingly resolved towards the end of the film, because they don't matter nearly as much as the film's loving commitment to the camaraderie of the camp (there's even a nostalgic shot of the abandoned camp, after the prisoners have all been repatriated as though the film yearns to be back there, rather than with these rather contrived, post-camp love matches). The most unconvincingly resolved love 'affair' is that between the Redgrave character and his ersatz wife. She's shocked that the hubby she thought had transformed himself into a poet, turns out to be a Czech impostor, and sends Redgrave - who now wants to belong to her - packing. But something about his sincere diffidence changes her mind and she takes him on. The End. A shame because it's a very strong dramatic idea, which is unsatisfactorily resolved The reason, I assume, for the perfunctory way with which all the 'love stories' are treated is either the film's running time, or that the film is really a love story about chaps, carrying on regardless of their aching hearts. The characters and scenes in the camp are well drawn; as a document of their camaraderie and coping capabilities, it's quite moving, but the love stories need a lot more work.