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Good story, Not enough for a whole film

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

A bit like a female-cast, French-with-subtitles version of The Dirty Dozen, with just a smidgen of a James Bond flick. Saving Private Ryan or Band of Brothers it ain't, but it's a good WW II story. A story about brave women, and only one feminist line in it ("You would never have done this to men," in a situation in which, the guy would certainly have done the same to men.

Sophie Marceau leads an excellent cast in this gripping movie.Based on true events it begins in 1944, a group of French servicewomen and resistance fighters are enlisted into the British Special Operations Executive commando group under the command of Louise Desfontaines and her brother Pierre.Their mission, to rescue a British army geologist caught reconnoitering the beaches at Normandy, and to kill a German SS colonel who is close to figuring out the imminent secret of D-Day, proves to be emotional and brutal.The film moves at a good pace and is so well acted you feel for the characters.

This film is probably based on true events but the keyword here is "based", as in very remotely based. I think the blame should be put on the writer and director who did an incredibly poor job out of a potential hit, messing it up to the point of turning a war-time thriller into a hilarious comedy, with no intention of doing so.The scenario lacked credibility from beginning to end. After a mere day of training, these poor girls manage to parachute at night without even a scratch, perform a perfectly synchronized strip show on music they'd never heard before and without the slightest possibility of a rehearsal.Sophie the sharp-shooter doesn't hold her breath while aiming, holds her rifles on both occasions at the shoulder, without support, hence shaking like a leaf, yet hitting her targets in the darkest of nights at the start of the film and later missing an unmissable shot in the subway with a state-of-the-art rifle in perfect conditions.At one point the girls get into a shoot-out (at the hospital) and hold their Stens at arm's length, like a bunch of dirty diapers, without getting their wrists damaged by the recoil and, of course, hitting their targets square on instead of shooting at birds.Such scenes were highly reminiscent of Charlie's Angels at their best, although the latter film is intended to be seen as funnily over-the-top, whereas the former is supposed to be realistic and based on true events.If all these failings were not sufficient to trigger bouts of hilarious laughter in the audience, the scenario pushes on and arranges for the girls to always be at the right spot at the right time with the right contacts, help and equipment, as though they had planned and rehearsed all the mishaps of their mission hundreds of times beforehand, a bit in the style of James Bond films. Simply not credible for such a story.The director jumps continuously from one scene to the next without the slightest hint of fluidity nor continuity, in the manner of a Marvel's comic. The girls look panicked throughout but yet manage to make all the right moves with nerves of steel, with a clear vision of when to hit, or shoot, or walk instead of running, and yet fail to kill the bad guy on so many occasions until the very end, as prescribed by the confused scenario, naturally.The sobbing looks fake in nearly all relevant scenes. The girls' characters evolve erratically in all psychological directions, as though they'd had weeks to think through what was happening to them and change their minds. The scenes of torture and suicide by cyanide pill have an air of strange impressionism derived from a 70's film by Godard. The bad Nazis have the look and feel of choir boys.In short it feels like a girlie's remake of Inglorious Basterds, shallow as hell, making very little sense or, rather, asking the viewer to mentally fill the gaps where the director lacked the time, or skill, or both, to package an otherwise interesting story into a sensible unit.Contrary to some comments I've read, the French know how to make excellent action films, write credible scenarii, and act convincingly, probably more so than most productions made in Hollywood. Unfortunately "les femmes de l'ombre" is a very bad example and shouldn't be seen as a landmark of French film-making, unless of course one looks at it as a comical parody of a would-be serious war-time story, in which case it remarkably hits the jackpot.I can't go so far as to recommend against watching it because, given enough imagination and little attention to detail, I wouldn't be surprised if someone found something interesting in it after all. I mean, let's face it, if you're a teenage girl or a romantic grandma, you'll probably like it.

Films abound regarding arguably the greatest tragedy of mankind--World War II--and so many focus on the heroic sacrifices of men. What makes "Les Femmes de L'ombre" shine is that it features the typically unsung contributors to the war effort--the heroines who shared the same audacity and love of country and liberty as the men.Aside from its cast of four gorgeous French women (and an equally delightful Italian), it features a simple, but clever agenda--the actions of a cell of saboteurs and assassins working for the British Special Operations Executive (SOE) in occupied France. There are no fantastic stories here--no plots to kill Hitler or to sabotage atomic research. Instead, the story narrows its focus to the extraordinary efforts to keep secret the particulars of the inevitable invasion of the European continent by the Allies. This is no small order, and there is much suffering in keeping what must remain secret.The emotions in the film are well played by the actors and actresses. During the few brutal, but necessary scenes, the cries of anguish and pain are real and powerfully emotive. Louise (Sophie Marceau) is convincing as a vengeful widow who works alongside her dedicated brother, Pierre (Julien Boisselier). Jeanne (Julie Depardieu, daughter of the famous French actor Gerard Depardieu) plays a callous whore motivated at first by remission of her prison sentence, then by money, then by revenge. Gaëlle (Déborah François) portrays the naïve, religious girl who is seemingly the only true French patriot of the group. Maria (Maya Sansa) is a driven, Italian Jew whose family met its fate in a concentration camp. The most reluctant member is the lovely Suzy (Marie Gillain), whose questionable past allied her with the most unlikely of characters, Colonel Heindrich (Moritz Bleibtreu) of the Wehrmacht and the film's major antagonist. Unexpected support comes from local profiteer, Eddy (Vincent Rottiers), whose connection to Colonel Heindrich enables the saboteurs to get close to him to fulfill their mission.If there's a noticeable weakness to the film, it is Bleibtreu cast as a Nazi colonel. He's neither evil nor intimidating. He lacks the sinister persona of Colonel Landa (Christoph Waltz) of "Inglourious Basterds," a decidedly less serious film of the genre. Where Colonel Heindrich should have been clever and cruel, his performance instead is wooden and uninspiring. Bleibtreu may be a little out of his realm in a role so serious.Les Femmes de L'ombre is a solid contribution to the WWII films of the last decade. I hope it inspires more stories of the Resistance to be told with attention to the incredible sacrifices and dedication of normal people confronted with the horrors of Nazism.