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Cross of Honour

5/10

Stars: Lachlan Nieboer, Florian Lukas, David Kross, Rupert Grint, Stig Henrik Hoff

Director: Petter Naess

A so-so example of the enemies-as-friends film, as three German flyers (Lukas, Kross, Hoff) crash in the white wilderness of Norway in 1940. Battling through a blizzard to a hunting hut, but losing their provisions on the way, they settle down to tending the shattered elbow of one of their members.

Soon enough, though, they are joined by two RAF men (Nieboer, Grint), also shot down in the snow. The Germans, led by Lukas, have weapons, though, so take the Brits 'hostage'. Demarquation lines are drawn in the (quite capacious) hut, bits of which keep the stove alight, while the five airmen survive on moss and water - as the RAF men set out to needle their 'captors'.

Later the tables are turned, but hostilities have already been blurred, as the trapped quintet reluctantly begin to get along.

Acting, and especially script are barely up to scratch in this Europudding co-production, with the Hugh Grant-like Nieboer forced to call one hostile a 'twisted, cheese-eating gnome' (more appropriate, perhaps, to a Swiss than a German). Both dialogue and attitudes, in fact, are more suited to an actual 1940s' film, although swearing is amply catered for by Airman Grint, in which role the Harry Potter actor's Brummy accent is at least OK.

David Quinlan

Norway/Sweden/Germany 2012. UK Distributor: Metrodome. Astrocolor.
101 minutes. Widescreen. UK certificate: 15.

Guidance ratings (out of 3): Sex/nudity 0, Violence/Horror 1, Drugs 0, Swearing 2.

Review date: 23 Sep 2012