Gracie!

After her performance in Little Voice it's fair to say if ever a movie was to be made about Gracie Fields then Jane Horrocks was destined to play the part. A northern lass herself blessed with a wonderful singing voice, Gracie tells the story of the war years when she married Italian film director Monty Banks played by the ever reliable Tom Hollander. Her love for Banks led her to fleeing the country as Great Britain was at war with Italy. This led to a backlash back home, many feeling Fields was a traitor where in reality she continued to raise money for the troops back home. The performances are all terrific if anything Horrox tries to hard to emulate her hero.

Jane Horrocks herself a northern lass was a good choice to play Gracie Fields, the singer from Rochdale who at a time in the 1930s was the highest paid film star in the world. Somehow I cannot recall ever watching any of her movies.

Gracie! is less of a biopic more a focus on her relationship with the Italian film director (and silent film star) Monty Banks who was at a time a big name in Hollywood directing Gracie Fields films.

Fields became seriously ill with cervical cancer in 1939. The public sent over 250,000 goodwill messages to her and she went to her villa in the island of Capri to recover.

With the outbreak of war and Italy entering World War 2 allied with Germany tested her relationship with the British public and the government as well as with Monty. He was regarded as an undesirable alien, Gracie was treated with suspicion and both went to Canada where Gracie could perform and raise funds for the British forces. Even then Monty had to flee to California and look to get US citizenship.

The film portrays Fields struggle between love and duty during the war and the repercussions after the war.

Horrocks plays Gracie as someone who was eager to please her fans, singing songs to entertain the troops at a drop of a hat with no regard to preserve a voice. We get to hear some of her popular songs.

Horrocks and Tom Holland (Monty Banks) give a good and sincere performance but you get little indication about what made Gracie Fields so popular. We can see her adoring fans always wanting more from her, who also then turn on her as well. There might be a reason why Gracie turned her back on Britain and lived in Capri, a place she adored very much.

This is a low budget bio-pic and you could argue that Horrocks cannot quiet reach Gracie's singing notes.