Director: Oliver Parker

Stars: Glenda Jackson, Michael Caine, John Standing, Danielle Vitalis, Will Fletcher, Laura Marcus

Based on a true story, this 2014-set Britpic follows an eighty-nine-year old pensioner as he makes his way across the channel to take part in the D-Day anniversary ceremony in Normandy. Caine is Bernard Jordan, the ex-navy man, living with his wife Irene (Jackson in her last role) in a care home. Irene is less able to get around so Bernie takes her out in her wheelchair every day. Realising he has missed booking for the official organised trip to Normandy, Bernard decides, with Irene’s encouragement, to ‘break out’ of the care home and make his own way. Care home staff are alarmed but cheeky Irene claims ignorance. The story intermittently flashes back to show how the couple met during the war, and revisit a defining moment in Bernard’s naval career. The jokey title and plucky pensioner theme suggest a typically twee Britfilm which for the most part it is, but there are tantalising glimpses of steel too, in a sequence where Bernard shares a silent drink with a group of German soldiers, and an electrifying moment between Bernard and a young troubled soldier. Caine ably hints at the unspoken trauma beneath his character’s cheery façade, while Jackson brings some much-needed irreverent energy to the often staid proceedings as the doughty Irene. It’s a moving and apposite send-off for the actor.

David Willoughby

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