#restless (2012)

https://x.com/captaintuchy/status/2058319577273049588?s=46&t=-S3wazxeQPGLMr1IeXZFqg

Basic Story: Sally Gilmartin reveals she was a spy during WWII, and that her life may still be in danger 30 years later.

Fan Thoughts: This adaptation of William Boyd's 2006 espionage novel of the same name features a star studded cast including: Hayley Atwell, Rufus Sewell, Michelle Dockery, Michael Gambon, Charlotte Rampling, and Gwilym Lee. Part one of the two part series opens during a visit by Ruth Gilmartin (Michelle Dockery) to her mother, Sally Gilmartin (Charlotte Rampling).  Sally reveals that she thinks she’s being watched from the surrounding woods, but Ruth brushes off her mothers nerves.  To make Ruth understand the danger is real, she reveals that her name is not Sally Gilmartin, but Eva Delectorskaya, and hands her a file with the story of how that came to be.  Flashing back to 1939, a young Eva (Hayley Atwell) is living in Paris with her brother Kolia after leaving Russia.  Kolia is killed in the street, and at the funeral a man called Lucas Romer (Rufus Sewell) approaches Eva and gives her his card.  Lucas appears in her flat when she returns home and informs her that he is a British spy and Kolia was working for him.  She agrees to become a spy like her brother and goes to Scotland to begin training, showing an aptitude for exercises on memory and survival skills.  The war starts and Eva goes to Belgium to works with a team to fabricate news that the Germans will pick up.  She gets the opportunity to observe an operation, and gets face to face with the realities of being a spy when the operation goes badly and several members on the operation are captured or killed.  Part two starts with Eva in the US, sent to seduce a presidential advisor, Mason Harding, to determine if America is in favor of joining the war.   Afterwards Lucas adds another assignment, to supply American agents with money and a secret document in New Mexico.  After acquiring the document, Eva opens it and finds a supposed map of German plans to invade the US via Mexico, but the map has grammatical and spelling errors so she questions its validity.  From there things spiral out quickly, and Eva’s path to the truth is paralleled in the 1940s timeline and the 1970s timeline.  The source material is clearly rich, however it does lag ever so slightly; a few less dramatic pauses and lingering shots would have helped to increase the tension and viewer engagement.  That is minor complaint though, as the story itself is interesting and both parts have the feel of a mystery novel.  The entire cast puts in solid performances with Hayley Atwell giving a particularly wonderful performance throughout.  Additionally the costuming is a standout, Eva has lovely outfit after lovely outfit in the ‘40s timeline.  Restless is attractive and pleasing adaptation with an excellent cast, and worth your time to watch.

Warnings: non-consensual sex (off-screen), shootouts with some blood, one character is stabbed in the eye (blood but little gore)

Restless (2012), starring Hayley Atwell, Rufus Sewell, Michelle Dockery and Charlotte Rampling, based on the novel by William Boyd. (1, 2.)

In which a Cambridge graduate student discovers her mother was a spy in WWII. It's subtle and smart, very much in the vein of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, if George Smiley were played by Charlotte Rampling.

There's so much to like here:

Period costumes

Wartime intrigue

Badass ladies being resourceful

Charlotte fucking Rampling with a sawed off shotgun

Michelle Dockery in high-waisted bell bottoms

quick warm up doodle