Private Peaceful (12A) 100 mins **
It’s
becoming apparent that writer Michael Morpurgo isn’t best served by the cinema.
After the wearyingly sentimental War Horse
comes this modest, makeshift teatime TV movie, which hasn’t the resources to do
Spielbergian spectacle: its Great War is formed of two explosions in a field in
Norfolk and John Lynch as an incessantly shouting sergeant-major. On the other
end of Lynch’s ire: the fresh-faced Peaceful brothers (George Mackay and Jack
O’Connell), fated by surname to become the nicest, humblest working-class lads
ever packed off to the Front.
Veteran
director Pat O’Connor must have been taking notes during the earlier film: all
dappled sunlight, oaky interiors, horses and parades, it’s like a village-hall
adaptation where Morpurgo’s class conflict has been toned down so as not to
alarm the parson. Will the Peaceful boys shoot a nice doggy-woggy at the behest
of scenery-chewing landowner Richard Griffiths? No spoilers here. Its destiny
is matinee screenings quarter-full with napping nostalgics, dreaming of simpler
times – even then, you don’t for a minute believe they were ever this simple.
Private Peaceful opens in selected cinemas from today.
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