Abigail Cruttenden

Charlotte Gray -- Charlotte Gray's World War II assignment could be the first of many. Or her fatal last. The people she meets could be friends or insidious traitors.

Charlotte Gray's World War II assignment could be the first of many. Or her fatal last. The people she meets could be friends or insidious traitors. Trained to be an undercover courier for England, Charlotte straps on a parachute and falls from the sky into Vichy France. There she will assist the French Resistance in its defiance of Nazi occupation. Only one of three couriers will return home. Cate Blanchett enthralls as Charlotte, who goes behind enemy lines while keeping secret her personal mission to find her lover, an RAF pilot downed over France.

Charlotte Gray's World War II assignment could be the first of many. Or her fatal last. The people she meets could be friends or insidious traitors. Trained to be an undercover courier for England, Charlotte straps on a parachute and falls from the sky into Vichy France. There she will assist the French Resistance in its defiance of Nazi occupation. Only one of three couriers will return home. Cate Blanchett enthralls as Charlotte, who goes behind enemy lines while keeping secret her personal mission to find her lover, an RAF pilot downed over France.

With two young daughters (Bella Riza and Carrie Mullan) in tow, a soul-searching mother (Kate Winslet) on a quest for enlightenment leaves 1970s London for Morocco, where she takes up with a kindhearted street performer (Saïd Taghmaoui) who does his best to protect her family. But her thirst for adventure proves bad medicine for her children. The film is based on a novel by Esther Freud, a descendant of the famous founder of psychoanalysis.