The romance, and what happened to it (spoiler alert, obviously)

I'm with you on the movie not working. None of the serious moments had the proper emotional payout. Buckley's death, Ambrose identifying Sammy's body, and Catrin walking in on the affair all felt out of place. They weren't able to manage the tonal shifts.

I'm just wrapping the film up now, and I totally agree, Buckley's death kind of ruined the movie.

So she finds her lover cheating, gets a new beau, and then he dies for no good reason? It's just not satisfying.

The DVD cover makes the film look relatively light-hearted and Wikipedia lists it as a "comedy-drama," which is what I was looking for, and his death added a sadness to the story that just felt unnecessary.

Doesn't it kind of play into the script writing aspect of the film. Successfully or not, they always debated about happy endings.

I actually liked that they were brave enough to kill him off. Yes, it was jarring and felt out of place, but they took the chance.

It's funny that when they finally got together I thought - too soon, something is going to go wrong - and it promptly did. But the fact I was aware of the time showed I wasn't totally engaged and I'm not really sure why. It's a film about a film and has many favourites and there was nothing wrong - maybe I'll like it more the next time I watch it?

The film wasn’t a sappy romance. It was a feminist movie about the empowerment of women during the war years. The first hint is when the agent dies and his sharp-minded sister takes over, quite aptly. Then Catlin gets promoted to movie screenwriter. She dumps her cheating boyfriend and realizes she never really needed him to get a life of her own outside of Wales. She goes back and steers the script to have the two sisters take on heroic scenes, like cutting the propeller loose. The strong willed, red haired colleague gains respect for her. Finally she becomes a head writer after the death of Buckley and is hired to bring more feminine voices to the scripts. Presumably she goes on to write scripts with strong female characters. On that level, the film worked for me.

Buckley’s death was random but had he lived Catlin would have been his wife or assistant writer. Sadly the death of so many young men left holes in the workforce that were filled by women. The Hilliard character says as much at the end. Sonething about an old guy like him and a young woman like Catlin having opportunities that came about due to the death of many young men.

Agreed 100% about Buckley's death, this film felt like it needed a happy ending with Catrin and Buckley getting together. I'm sure it what happens in the book. But it just didn't work in this film for me. Sure the film wasn't the sappy romance, the promotion went for to sell this film when it was in the cinema. But still.

But I still like the film, although it does fall apart for me once they move back to London to film onstage. The underrated Sam Claflin and Gemma Arterton have great chemistry and really make us care for both characters. Great support from the always great Bill Nighy, the late great Helen McCrory, Richard E Grant, Eddie Marsan and Rachael Stirling. This film should have been a lot better then it turned out.

But still give it a solid 6/10 and well worth a watch.