The title is a riff on the classic The Great Escape. It also marks the end of an acting era.
Glenda Jackson died just before the release of the movie. Eight years after second triumphant return to acting after a 23 years detour to politics.
While Michael Caine claimed this would be his last movie at the age of 90.
Inspired by the true story of Royal Navy veteran Bernard Jordan. Caine plays Bernie who in 2014 sneaked out of his seaside care home. He was on a secret mission to attend the 70th anniversary celebrations of the D-day landings in Normandy. He left it too late for the official organised group tour.
Back at the care home. His wife Rene (Glenda Jackson) cheerfully covers up for him. The staff at the care home do not want her to know that Bernie is missing. Until she lets the cat out of the back over a fish and chips supper.
While on his excursion. Bernie meets another old soldier, the posh Arthur (John Standing.) His liver is shot to pieces over a lifetime of booze, covering up a secret of a bombing mission he was engaged in.
Bernie also wants to confront his past over the D-day landings. He even gets to help out a modern soldier suffering from PTSD.
Director Oliver Parker knows what works from his actors is to keep things subtle. Caine does a lot of acting with his eyes. Jackson is sardonic. Standing almost steals the show.
The story is charming and small scale. It does come across like a television movie. A little like A Foreign Field, a BBC television movie from 1993. It was about British and American Second World War veterans returning to the beaches of Normandy as old men and women. That starred Alec Guinness and Lauren Bacall.
Glenda Jackson died just before the release of the movie. Eight years after second triumphant return to acting after a 23 years detour to politics.
While Michael Caine claimed this would be his last movie at the age of 90.
Inspired by the true story of Royal Navy veteran Bernard Jordan. Caine plays Bernie who in 2014 sneaked out of his seaside care home. He was on a secret mission to attend the 70th anniversary celebrations of the D-day landings in Normandy. He left it too late for the official organised group tour.
Back at the care home. His wife Rene (Glenda Jackson) cheerfully covers up for him. The staff at the care home do not want her to know that Bernie is missing. Until she lets the cat out of the back over a fish and chips supper.
While on his excursion. Bernie meets another old soldier, the posh Arthur (John Standing.) His liver is shot to pieces over a lifetime of booze, covering up a secret of a bombing mission he was engaged in.
Bernie also wants to confront his past over the D-day landings. He even gets to help out a modern soldier suffering from PTSD.
Director Oliver Parker knows what works from his actors is to keep things subtle. Caine does a lot of acting with his eyes. Jackson is sardonic. Standing almost steals the show.
The story is charming and small scale. It does come across like a television movie. A little like A Foreign Field, a BBC television movie from 1993. It was about British and American Second World War veterans returning to the beaches of Normandy as old men and women. That starred Alec Guinness and Lauren Bacall.