Till We Meet Again

Since this miniseries is based on a Judith Kranz story, you can expect a lot of steam, several illicit affairs, and a fair amount of incest. This is a very soapy melodrama that a lot of women will love, but if it's not your cup of tea, you should know from the get-go. The villain is one-dimensional, the heroes never get a break, and family secrets are revealed in the worst way. Hugh Grant is so evil, it's a wonder he even had a career after this and wasn't typecast because of his very convincing performance. You'll want to throw things at your television, you'll want to scream at him, and you'll want terrible things to happen to him. Isn't that one of the necessities of a melodrama?

The setting of Till We Meet Again spans from pre-WWI to post-WWII. It's a very romantic time period, with soldiers leaving women behind and never knowing if they're to return. When high-class Lucy Gutteridge falls for a slimy actor, she runs away from home assuming he'll marry her. He doesn't, and instead they live in sin together in Paris. When the war breaks out, Lucy meets handsome soldier Michael York and falls in love with him instead. He's married, though, and has an infant son. He tries to get a divorce, but after his reckless wife kills herself, his parents take his son away from him and quickly turn the boy against his father. That's just the beginning! I haven't told you anything about Michael and Lucy's two daughters, who grow up to be played by Courtney Cox and Mia Sara.

As a girly girl who loves everything soapy and melodramatic, I really enjoyed Till We Meet Again. Of course, there were certain parts I couldn't actually enjoy because they were upsetting, but that's also what makes a great drama. Characters suffer losses, and those injuries only make you root more for them. As I always feel in generational sagas, the early historical parts were more interesting than the modern ones. I could have watched hours more about Michael and Lucy, rather than Mia and her Hollywood career. The age makeup was excellent, and seeing the parents stoop and wrinkle as the years go by was a lot of fun. The costumes were also beautiful and very authentic looking, and the automobiles and airplanes really took me back in time to the first half of the century.

As authentic as the costumes and cars are, there are a couple of major faux pas: men didn't wear mullets in the 1930s, and women didn't belt 1980s-style ballads in music halls in the 1910s. Popular songs sounded like "Don't Sit Under the Apple Tree" and "You're the Cream in My Coffee", with singing styles like Edith Piaf and Ruth Etting. If Lucy Gutteridge performed the way she did in the miniseries, audiences wouldn't even applaud for her. Once Courtney Cox got in the picture and sang songs around the piano with the Air Force boys, they finally got the memo and sang WWII style songs.

If this type of saga appeals to you, rent this soapy miniseries and invite your girlfriends over. Literary types might want to find a copy of the book, since I'm sure it goes into even more detail. I would probably watch it again, even though Courtney was still very green as an actress. She was very pretty, so you could just focus on her lovely face rather than the delivery of her lines.

Kiddy Warning: Obviously, you have control over your own children. However, due to incest and a rape scene, I wouldn't let my kids watch it.

i watched this series when i was little (8 or 9) and it had quite an impression on me. my uncle somehow managed to tape it and so i re watched it several times. what i liked best was not the story itself but its historical and geographical background, i mean, Gosh! the movie spans from the beginning of the 20th century to the early 50s, and covers 3 countries France, England, USA. i was greatly impressed by the WWII episode, the "Resistance" and all, fer me it was an excellent prelude to Schindler's list, though the drama is much stronger in the latter. it had beautiful soundtracks and a whole lot of interesting characters. i liked them all but there was one that i loathed!!! Poor Hugh Grand it was the first movie i've seen him in... i can't remember hating a character as much as i hated Bruno. it was yeeeeaaars after when i watched other movies of his and realized that "Hey! That was just a role, you don't have to hate the actor too! lool!"

Well, I thought this was quite good. As a rule, TV mini-series can be pretty hit-and-miss, but I was pleasantly surprised by this one.

A good pre-Friends performance from Courteney Cox, who proves that she can act and a brilliant cast on the whole. Isn't Barry Bostwick just dreamy??

Anyway, if you want to see one book adaptation, then see this one! Go on! See it!

An amazing cast; perfect landscapes, sets and costumes. Set in Pre-WWI, the story begins with one wealthy man's troubled marriage, which leaves him a widower with a son who will become estranged to him thanks to interference from elitist grandparents (Michael York & Hugh Grant, two of my faves -- NO SPOILERS). During his travels following the war, York falls for a young woman from a good family (Lucy Gutteridge) who was inopportunely seduced and ultimately forced to become a type of show girl... who he marries, which leads to the birth of three children whose stories unfold with the Nazi occupation of WWII in the backdrop. The stars survive all forms of trauma, much of it caused by York's estranged son (Grant).

Supporting actors (including several of my faves as well, namely Charles Shaughnessy, Bruce Boxleitner, Barry Bostwick, and Vernon Dobtcheff) really help the leading ladies of the story (Lucy Gutteridge, Mia Sara, and Courteney Cox) pull through quite a lot from the start of the film through it's conclusion.

No Spoilers. Watch the movie.

I totally loved this movie and cannot rave about it enough. Full of wonderfully stong characters, especially the female ones. It would be easier to talk about if I had seen it more recently, but it has been a while. It is well worth reading the book too, like the movie you just melt into it... I wish I had the PAL version!!