REVIEW: Queen & Country

Starring: Callum Turner, Caleb Landry Jones, David Thewlis, Tamsin Egerton, Richard E Grant, Pat Shortt, David Hayman, Sinead Cusack, Vanessa Kirby, John Standing, Julian Wadham

Director: John Boorman

Released: June 12 (UK & Ireland, selected cinemas)

IN 1987, John Boorman seduced Oscar voters with his autobiographical comedy drama, Hope And Glory, and garnered five nominations including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Original Screenplay.

Taking its title from a refrain in Elgar's stirring Pomp And Circumstance Marches, the defiantly unsentimental film relived Boorman's memories of the Blitz through the eyes of a nine-year-old boy called Bill Rohan.

The writer-director juxtaposed global conflict with the intimate trials and tribulations of the Rohan family, conjuring memorable scenes such as Bill rejoicing when a wayward Luftwaffe bomb destroys his school.

Queen & Country continues the misadventures of Boorman's fictional hero, unfolding almost 10 years later when Bill has come of age and can now serve his country.

Any affection for the 1987 picture sours as it becomes painfully clear that this second traipse down the filmmaker's memory lane is an emotionally underpowered family portrait, beset by awkward shifts in tone and uneven performances.

Dad's Army-style buffoonery sits uncomfortably next to serious consideration of post-traumatic stress disorder suffered by returning soldiers, adorned with a tepid romantic sub-plot that fails to stir our unabashedly patriotic hearts.

Bill (Callum Turner) lives on an island in the River Thames with his parents Clive (David Hayman) and Grace (Sinead Cusack), grouchy grandfather George (John Standing) and free-spirited sister Dawn (Vanessa Kirby).

The young man enlists in the army and prepares other fresh-faced recruits for the Korean War.

"They'll have their work cut out, making a soldier out of you, pipsqueak," jokes one of the Rohan clan.

Bill and trouble-making pal Percy (Caleb Landry Jones) engage in a battle of wits with Sergeant Major Bradley (David Thewlis) and their despairing superior, Major Cross (Richard E Grant).

As England continues to rebuild and heal wounds in the aftermath of the Second World War, Bill and Percy discover that their tomfoolery has unexpectedly devastating consequences.

Meanwhile, Bill struggles to sustain a foundering romance with a posh ice maiden called Ophelia (Tamsin Egerton).

"Don't expect anything from me, William. I'll disappoint you," she counsels.

Ophelia might as well be talking about Boorman's film.

Queen & Country is a crushing disappointment.

Turner is a solid protagonist, but his acting mettle is rarely tested while Texan co-star Jones fights a war of attrition with a plummy English accent and overacts wildly to distract attention from his verbal mangling.

Boorman's script occasionally glisters, like when one character sums up the intrigue of the Cambridge Five spy ring by deadpanning, "Buggery and skulduggery go hand in hand", but these nuggets of verbal gold are few and far between.

By the time Bill and Percy are hauled before a court-martial judge (Julian Wadham) to answer questions about the theft of a regimental clock instigated by Private Redmond (Pat Shortt), our patience has run out.

4/10

Damon Smith