Yanks Reviews

This well-made but often-boring movie examines, soap-opera style, a trio of couples. A small English village is thrown for a loop when a bunch of Americans show up, tossing money around and wooing the local women. The first two relationships are creakingly predictable. Gere is a hotshot who falls in love with Eichhorn, the prim daughter of Roberts and Melody. As much as she likes Gere, her heart belongs to her absent boyfriend, Derek Thompson. Devane and Redgrave are both married--to absent spouses. His wife is in the US, and her husband is off fighting. They have a brief affair but realize it's not in the cards. The relationship between Vennera and Morgan escapes the kind of obvious plotting that mars the other two; Vennera is a breath of fresh air, rushing Morgan into bed, and their story is the most passionate and enjoyable of the lot. Several less idyllic moments counterpoint the three love stories: a racist fight at a dance, a snippet of some of the training the soldiers must go through, and a boxing match at a local site. Those scenes stand out only because the rest of the movie is ho-hum. The film pays close attention to detail and the re-creation of the era, however, and the costumes by Shirley Russell won a British Academy Award. In a small role as a Red Cross employee, look for Annie Ross, who teamed with Dave Lambert and Jon Hendricks in the 1960s to form one of the hottest jazz singing group of the era. Bennett's music is properly evocative, with excerpts from swing pieces of the era including "Two O'Clock Jump."