Resistance (2011) User Reviews (50)

Mumble, mumble, mumble

[rick-520-6264 · 4/10 · 4 November 2012]

A fairly interesting premise, and a story that might have been far more interesting if I didn't find myself having to switch on my superpower sense of hearing to make sense of the irritating mumbling between the characters.

Of course, no sooner had I upped the volume the music started playing - an eardrum-throbbing violin.

The net result was that I found myself spending more time playing with the volume buttons on the remote control than I did watching the film - a shame as it was on the whole pretty atmospheric.

I couldn't see the point of the Michael Sheen character, but the German Hauptmann was quietly convincing - if perhaps a little too quiet when he was not speaking German.

Michael Sheen used to sell this movie and he's not in it much

[nishy2012 · 5/10 · 27 March 2012]

This is a TV movie if anything, very average and predictable. Michael Sheen is listed as one of the stars yet he is only in it for about five minutes, maybe ten at a push. Some of the reviews on IMDb are laughable regarding this film, like the chap who said he never posts reviews, well neither do I but after reading the first one I have to say that this is a very mundane film and I agree with what he wrote completely. The Welsh countryside is beautifully shot by the film-maker but that is not really a reason to watch this film. My advice is to wait till it comes on TV and if you are bored then this might kill time but it is certainly not very special, interesting or anything else.

not as bad as some people say

[sianviv · 4/10 · 8 July 2013]

Not as bad as some people say not as good either! If you want pretentiously bad try 'The Hours'. At least no-one was wearing a Groucho' nose. Excellent cinematography - superbly atmospheric views and angles. On reflection, sensitive acting - but I couldn't find/feel empathy with any character - I found it rather unsatisfying to be a detached observer. Far too few jokes (none in fact?) The penultimate scene/action - and possibly the first act of resistance shown by Ms Riseborough's character was nihilistic, an act of vandalism rather than a statement about truth or freedom. Was the final 'ride into the sunset' or murky mists, meant to be ambiguous - a walk to death or to seek out her husband or merely Sarah's need to escape claustrophobia

A film in search of a story

[johnbirch-2 · 3/10 · 2 November 2012]

Lets begin with the positives. Its a very pretty film which makes full use of a Welsh valley. The acting is pretty good as well, in general. It looks very period and the Welsh country show with Nazi backdrop is well done.

So in short all of the pieces are here to make a good film. The scene setting is pretty good and the cast competent. But a film is not all scenery and actors, it does kind of require a story as well - but this really is where this one falls down because it really does not have one.

And its not as if there aren't plenty of opportunities for a story to break out. There's the resistance group with all their secret weapons... but they get bumped off in short measure. There's the young heroic, lone, resistance fighter... who has virtually no lines and no action at all.

There's the German invasion and conquest of Britain... which is happens entirely on the radio. There's the secret of the map... but that really goes no-where and if it had not been part of the plot at all you'd really not notice. There's the Martin Sheen character who is great and mysterious... and in the film for all of about 4 minutes during which time he does damn all.

Which leaves the war-weary soldiers hiding in the valley to see the war out... but who then allow someone out so as to enter a horse in the local agricultural show!

But there again how about five people could be expected to keep everyone (including rest of the German army) out of an entire valley, as well as not actually being missed by anyone is anyone's guess. After all this is a map that is wanted by senior German officials, so they really WOULD notice if their crack search team had gone walkabout!

Its as if the director lost interest about 15 minutes into the film and just left the camera running while the actors improvise until they got bored and wandered off - which chances are most of the audience will.

In short, if you want to see what German occupied rural Wales would have looked like its great. However, after those 4-5 minutes the rest of the hour and a half is eminently, frustratingly, forgettable.

Boring and taking itself way too seriously

[hateimdbforever · 1/10 · 10 June 2020]

This is not a true story, it's an what if scenario.

Those kind of movies should be at least a little fun but nope, not this one.

Too long, boring characters and acting, low budget crap.

There are other resistance movies you can watch, this one is not.

The most difficult thing to resist is yawning...

[natashabowiepinky · 3/10 · 3 January 2014]

When I heard this was a movie about an alternate reality where Britain lost the Second World War and becomes under German control, I thought "GREAT!! Sounds like an fascinating exploration of people suffering under the occupation of an enemy force." The truth is somewhat different though... in fact, my initial reaction couldn't have been less accurate if I'd assumed David Cameron would be a Conservative Prime Minister.

The 'action' focuses on a lonely Welsh valley, after D-day has failed and all the men disappear overnight. A handful of Jerrys appear (The budgeters couldn't afford to hire any more, ya see) and take over the even smaller population (Man, those purse strings must've been tight), and one of them takes a fancy to a local girl who's husband has gone AWOL. His pathetic attempts at courtship takes up the lion's share of the length, while some dogs, a horse and a sheep die in tragic circumstances.

What's that? You wanted MORE? You expected large scale gun battles, the sight of people suffering during Nazi authority, real tension, and God forbid, some genuine wartime atmosphere? None of that here, matey. The Germans here seem like nice chappies, helping out around the farm and treating the residents with respect and curtesy. This might be alright for the fictional characters in the movie, but it kills all interest stone dead.

There are myriads of flashbacks, none of help move the plot forward at all and only serve to confuse the viewer with their irrelevance. I didn't care about any of these people, because the script gave me nothing TO care about. You'd be hard pushed to find anything that lasts for more than 80 minutes where less happens, and considering the Can't-Miss central premise, this is a crime. One day, they'll make a film about this very subject, on a much grander scale.

And, *fingers crossed* it'll be nothing like this. 3/10

Atmosphere 10/10 - Content 0/10

[per_nefer · 12 July 2014]

A Welsh rural community under Nazi occupation with the male population disappeared into the hills to form the resistance (we assume) was well acted and the atmosphere captured perfectly. The content was abysmal. Too much was presented without credible explanation - the significance of the medieval map was glossed over, the killing of Maggie's horse for her alleged collaboration was lame, and many other anomalies. But the real killer was the whole basic scenario. If D-Day had failed and Hitler's western front secured, are we really asked to believe that he would have sent troops into Britain when the Red Army was advancing on Berlin? And where were the Americans? Do we assume they fled back across the pond to resume their stance of neutrality? To suggest so shows little knowledge or understanding of the history of the late war period. Hitler's precondition for invasion had always been for dominant air supremacy which he failed to achieve when Britain stood alone - would he have attempted a repeat performance with an island full of US air-power? I think not.

wrong country right film

[richardbeddoes · 7/10 · 28 June 2014]

Have the filmmakers and the writer adopted Herefordshire into Wales? or they don't know their geography! they got the wrong country, its set in England the last time I looked at an atlas. Historically It was absurd to put the time of the German occupation after D Day as they were nearly on their last legs.

Quite enjoyed the film though. Great views and it did capture the theme of occupied and occupiers,It was interesting to see the interaction between soldiers and the women of the valley. The Germans were not quite as nasty as they were in the alternative universe of reality in occupied Europe of the real war, but many women still fell for them, still would Welsh women (living in Hereford) have been any different1

completely pretentious - what were they thinking of

[robpstone · 1/10 · 26 November 2011]

A potentially good story line ruined by the direction. The director must have watched far to many new wave films. Cutting out the endless shots of the cast staring at each other and numerous silences as the cast have deep thoughts would have reduced the film from 90 minutes to circa 35 minutes .....you get the idea. Directors end to engage the audience not drive them to boredom. In addition where did they get the German soldiers from - those German accents have not seen Germany. Difficult top know which was the worst scene in the film ( there were many). My money is on the one when the young resistance fighter shoots the horse ...cut to crying in his fathers arms.

Not flawless, but an intense and humane film about the pity of war

[timwestcott · 7/10 · 6 May 2020]

I'm posting this here largely because of the low imdb rating, which is plain wrong.

Resistance is a counterfactual tale set in a Welsh mountain valley which posits a successful Nazi invasion of Britain in 1944. There are a host of reasons why that scenario is difficult to square with the historical facts (what happened to the RAF, the Americans and the Russians?), but let's leave that to one side.

This is a powerful small-scale film focusing on the complex relationship between the occupier and the occupied. Only minimal hints about what is going on in the wider world are dropped (London falls, but Manchester and Birmingham are not subdued), and even at the end of the film you are left with several possible conclusions.

Because of its determinedly slow rhythm and elliptical style (lots of long Pinteresque pauses and staring into the middle distance), this film is not for thrill-seekers. To be honest, it would be a better film with a bit more happening. But there are more than enough (or far too many) movies full of explosions, machine guns and dumb revenge killings. Resistance has a different agenda.

As the enemy approaches, all the men leave the village, in the dead of night, without telling the women where they are going. The women suspect (rightly) they have gone to join the resistance. Soon afterwards a squad of Germans led by Hauptmann Wolfram (Tom Wlaschiha) arrives in the valley.

They appear to be searching for the men, but it turns out that Wolfram at least is more concerned with finding artworks that have been hidden in the area (specifically the medieval Mappa Mundi). Then the men just stay, through the winter to the following spring. They are kind to the women and help out with the sheep and the ploughing, and they even borrow civilian clothes when their uniforms start to wear out. They almost become protectors rather than enemies (not telling the Gestapo about the missing men, for example).

But they are met with a Silence du Mer treatment (the resistance of the title is that of the women). Wolfram tries hard to befriend one of the wives, Sarah (Andrea Risborough) and gives her a record player for her birthday, but he is rejected. He may be a decent person, and is clearly weary of the war, but he remains the enemy.

Resistance may be lacking in thrills, but it's also a salutary reminder of the pity of war which, maybe significantly, was made in the aftermath of the Iraq war and while British soldiers were fighting and dying in Afghanistan.

Possibly the Worst British film of 2011

[malcolmgsw · 1/10 · 7 December 2011]

It took me a round trip of 2 1/2hours to get to to the cinema that was showing this film,one of only 2 in London.This made me feel extremely annoyed at the time wasted to get to see this truly terrible film.The film is disjointed,baffling and boring.had i been in my local cinema i would have walked out before the end.About 5 German troops have invaded a Welsh valley.they are looking for a map.the Captain finds it but does nothing.they just stay there.then there is an agricultural show with about one dozen extras milling about.then a horse is shot dead as his owner is a collaborator.Thats about it.Clearly the exhibitors know a thing or two by making it as difficult as possible to track down.I should have taken the hint.

A gentle, beautiful and sensitive anti-war film

[maurice-714-270860 · 8/10 · 17 June 2013]

Having read and enjoyed the novel I decided to rent this movie, but while awaiting delivery I read all the reviews I could find. A very high proportion of these user reviews, both on IMDb and elsewhere, described a film that was totally boring, a complete waste of time, had nothing to do with resistance and was generally pointless.

All I can say in reply to these reviews is that films about war are not necessarily about violence, gunfire and cruelty. Put briefly, this film is a gentle story set in a beautiful Welsh valley, a tale of frightened farmer's wives left mysteriously without their menfolk, a group of German soldiers traumatised by war, an expression of human feeling and resistance to war in many and varied ways. If this doesn't appeal to you, then watch Rambo! If, however, you are a sensitive soul with a belief in human goodness, then watch this film and enjoy it! My only gripe is that I found the dialogue a little hard to follow - and there are no subtitles. Having said that, I accepted this difficulty and found that it didn't really affect my pleasure - the film doesn't rely heavily on dialogue. All-in-all a most enjoyable film and one that I will watch again - it certainly helped to hear the director's commentary on the DVD.

Pretentious, historically silly, with incoherent plot

[davidmurray1917 · 1/10 · 4 December 2014]

DOES CONTAIN PLOT SPOILERS

The back story is this 'D-Day fails, Germany invades UK'. That's it, no other explanation, no other context. There is a serious issue as to whether of not The Third Reich had any intention to invade the UK even in 1940. There is a good argument that it did not. To suppose that it had such plans in 1944, when it was fighting a desperate and loosing struggle against the Soviet Union is ridiculous. To suppose that had the D-Day landings been repulsed Germany would then have switched to the offensive, by-passing the months of planning and logistical preparation that would have been required for a Channel crossing, is at the level of a kid's comic.

But this, as it were macro-absurdity, is then echoed by a whole series of absurdities at every level of the plot (using that word loosely):

1) The men of the village disappear, supposedly to fight the Germans, but we hear nothing of the.

2) The German unit is tasked to find an ancient map, which, supposedly will be used by Himmler to validate his ideology. Er, how, and why? And how come the unit is of the Wehrmacht, not the SS?

3) The map is 'hidden' in a cave and is found by the German commander on this first search. I mean, really !!

4) We're told that the Germans are stranded in the valley over Winter, but what we see of the weather is nothing very special, even by Brit standards, and far less severe than the conditions on the Eastern Front which the German military would have been dealing with for 3 years !!

5) For no good reason the Germans start to wear civvies, supposedly because their uniforms are 'wearing out'. This is just beyond silly, and anyway, didn't they have spares ?

6) At one point a Welshman is caught by the German unit, supposedly having been 'interrogated by the Gestapo' - the only damage to him appears to be a bit of facial bruising, no more than could have been received in a barney down the boozer on a Saturday night. OK, this is supposed to be an 'alternate history' work, but a Gestapo whose interrogation goes no further than a few smacks to the face is just too alternate for credibility.

The overall premise has possibilities. None of these are explored. This is a worthless movie, utterly devoid of serious ideas or any moral or political dimension.

Awful, Boring and Pointless Movie

[claudio_carvalho · 2/10 · 18 July 2013]

In 1944, the D-Day for the invasion of Normandy by the Allies has failed and Europe has not been released from the German forces. The men of an isolated Welsh village disappear and their wives believe that they have joined the resistance and soon German soldiers arrive at the village. The farmer Sarah Lewis (Andrea Riseborough) and the German Commander Albrecht (Tom Wlaschiha) befriend to each other along the year.

"Resistance" is an awful, boring and pointless movie with one of the most stupid fictional story of the World War II. The pretentious story with the German basically winning the World War II associated to a dull romance simply goes nowhere and is a total waste of time and good cast. My vote is two.

Title (Brazil): "Resistência" ("Resistance")

Shoulder shrugging bewilderment

[carljbewley · 25 February 2014]

Here be Spoilers ...

. . . . . . .

Somewhere there's a massive hole that this film fell into. If I can catch the mood of the film in two words it would be:

Barren.

Still.

An interesting 'what if' scenario that is given plenty of time (too much as it turns out)to develop but lacks any inspired input from any source whatsoever. I can't really comment on the acting because the dialogue in the film, thanks to the dreadfully thread bare script, is so scarce that you hardly notice anyone is in fact acting or interacting with anything.

The film title is 'Resistance' but where is the resistance? If anything its about passive submission and acceptance - and that submission and acceptance is achieved without any real dialogue, interaction or event.

There is no reason to fear the invader and no real reason to refuse their help. There is no tension created although it's hinted at all too briefly, but fades away the moment the three or four words are uttered. Then it's back to bleak rolling Welsh hillside, standing still and not saying anything.

The lone Resistance fighter and his mysterious contact are criminally under used and the plot holes are just annoyingly irritating.

I read in another review that not all war films are about guns, violence and cruelty. I agree you can create a story in the backdrop of war that doesn't have to have these elements physically in your eye line, but as they are all key facets of what War actually is all about then pretending they don't exist is ridiculous.

Are we to accept that a German unit can disappear off the map? that Teutonic ordered efficiency just stopped being a part of the German war machine the moment they reached Wales? That after taking such risks to hide themselves that they would risk it all for an agricultural show? No. These were desperately silly plot points.

Oh, there's also some bizarre sub plot line about a map. None of that made any sense whatsoever. Maybe a fan of the book could enlighten me, but it's inclusion in the movie seemed to be to pin together a few very thin and tenuous plot lines and let the sound man get over excited with a stabby staccatto violin piece (creating a rare moment in the movie where you actually think something may happen here!....but it doesn't...).

The best and worst aspect of the film though was the ending. Best because it ended (hurrah) and worst because it just leaves you sat there wandering...what was that?

90 Minutes of my life i will never get back!

[wkennedy1974 · 1/10 · 24 March 2012]

This has to be the slowest, most boring film i have ever watched.

So bad in fact that after 5-6 years of reading IMDb reviews, this is the first review i have posted.

I would like to point out that i am not in anyway offended by the content of the film, or the subject matter. the premise is actually quite intriguing - the UK set in a German occupied state. i was very much looking forward to how this would pan out (not fizzle out)

Shocking

Boring

DO NO WATCH

i really cannot stress that enough. Utter crap.

War is Hell!

[doorsscorpywag · 1/10 · 21 March 2012]

We are lucky that D Day did not fail in June 1944 or we would have been subject to occupation from a load of B Movie actors who think staring into space is somehow profound. A film with Britain's most brilliant 21st Century actor Michael Sheen should be well worth watching and Sheen is the only thing about this film that is worth watching. Sheen plays the shadowy coordinator type who would have been responsible for Churchill's Resistance movement had we been invaded by the Nazi's. The rest of the cast were dull as dishwater. The German's arrive and start acting oddly and we find they are looking for the Mappa Mundi which is hidden in the hills. Their captain does not want them to fall in battle and keeps secret his discovery of the map and sets his men to helping the local farms now run by the women as the men have all run off to form the Secret Army. A terminally dull passage of time later during which nothing at all interesting happens we get our climactic finish as one of Sheen's men prepares to shoot a collaborator which turns out to be a horse. The assassin then bursts into tears at executing the dastardly equine who was obviously betraying it's country by letting the Germans give it sugar lumps. This type of artsy fartsy drivel is the kind that win awards as critics fall over themselves to show how they cleverly understand what the writer was portraying as Resistance can come in many forms. In this case it comes in boring the Germans into submission. For the rest of us we lose 90 minutes that could have been spent wallpapering the pigeon loft or simply banging our heads against a wall. Both would have been far more productive tasks than watching this utter crap.

Execrable

[david_hemsworth · 1/10 · 17 June 2012]

I love war-themed films and liked the sound of this one. What a disappointment! I can only echo an earlier reviewer and stress how mid-numbingly slow, boring and seemingly pointless it all is. If you fancy a story that well and truly loses the plot, appreciate a leading lady's woodenly bad acting and enjoy trying to make out what is being mumbled pretentiously in a Welsh accent, this is the film for you. Goodness knows what the woman was saying sometimes - I played back some utterances several times and still didn't have a clue, there being no English sub-title facility, other than when German was spoken. I found myself longing for a bit of German to relieve the strain of mumbled English dialogue.

For 60 years I've had a limitless capacity to lap up any old tosh about the Second World War. This dreadful film has put paid to that.

90 minutes i will never get back!

[torrentmad · 1/10 · 7 May 2012]

I too never write film reviews however this film is so bad that i felt compelled to write this. The premise is a good one, the actors are good. However the director who has seen probably one too many Terence Malick films thought who needs a story when you have the characters inner monologue. Do not watch this garbage. Michael Sheen is in this film for about 5 minutes however if you watched the trailer you would think he was the main character! I am still of the opinion his character was shot to stop any possible interesting storyline happening. Its absolute drivel of the highest order.

Do Not Watch This Film

A touching but depressing tale of war, love, and loss.

[theredcomet · 10/10 · 23 June 2015]

This film is breathtaking and beautiful with gorgeous scenery, cinematography, acting, and story line. It is a film that DEEPLY touches the heart.

Plot summary below:

Resistance is not really a good title for this movie since it is not really about resistance. The premise is that the D-Day invasion has failed and that Nazi Germany is in the process of occupying Britain and the war will be over soon.

A small group of German soldiers are sent on a mission to a secluded Welsh valley to look for a piece of medieval artwork reported to be there. This valley is extremely small with only a couple of farms on it. Meanwhile, all the husbands of the women there have disappeared. It never really explains what happened to them, but it can be surmised from the beginning of the film that they leave to participate in some guerrilla action and never make it back.

One of the main characters of the movie is the German Captain Albrecht. He notifies the women of the valley that his men will be posted there for a couple of weeks. He tries at first to find out where all the men went, but soon abandons that pursuit.

The main female character is farm wife Sarah, who feels extremely hurt and betrayed that her husband left in the middle of the night without saying anything (for her safety), but she also deeply misses him and is scared for both his safety and what this meas for her future. When the German soldiers show up this makes her feel even more alone and vulnerable.

Sarah and the rest of the women of the valley band together for support because the women feel scared and alone without their husbands and at first they don't want to have anything to do with the German soldiers. But Albrecht and his men are, for the most part, kind and compassionate to the people of the valley and treat them with respect while searching for the lost artifact, which was hidden before the invasion. The woman tell the soldiers they cannot cooperate with the enemy and be collaborators and the soldiers respect their wishes.

Soon the harsh winter comes and threatens the livelihoods of the women's farms and the soldiers catch food and start to offer help to the resistant women. When they help the women during a particularly bad storm, they start to come around and accept the help of the German soldiers around their farms who take on the tasks of their missing husbands.

Meanwhile, Albrecht has found the lost artifact but hides the location from both his men and the high command so they can stay there longer. He suffers from PTSD due to his men being killed in the war and also from the death of his wife and child in a bombing raid. The peaceful seclusion of the valley offers him something he has been longing far since the beginning of the war and he will do anything to keep it that way by keeping both the German command out of the picture and by stopping any communication into and out of the valley - his reasoning being that they can wait out the rest of the war in the valley so no more of his men get killed. The acting by Albrecht's actor Tom Wlaschiha is phenomenal and you can really see the pain in his eyes and face and the struggles he goes through, but you can also see his strength as he takes care of his men and his kindness and compassion for the women.

Albrecht develops a subtle relationship with Sarah who is missing her husband and who seems heavily depressed. Their relationship is probably the most interesting part of the film. The other women also develop different relationships with the soldiers as they work around the farm and care for them. The change in the women's attitude is also shown by the soldiers adopting the husbands' farming clothes.

A young boy who never went to the front was instructed before the invasion on how to resist the enemy. He spies on the valley and soon finds a way to interrupt their idyllic lives. I won't give away the ending but the whole movie is very heart-wrenching and you really feel for both the women, the group of soldiers, and the angry boy who wants to do his part in fighting the enemy.

This movie shows the horrors of war very honestly and really explores the nature of human beings and the feelings of love and loss during wartime.

It is not an action movie, but more of a slow character drama. It is HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

It Lacks Credibility From The Start And Never Recovers

[sddavis63 · 2/10 · 9 June 2017]

The first problem with this movie is its utter lack of believability. Alternative history can be very interesting, but to be interesting it has to be credible. This failed the credibility test right from the start. The opening caption said something like "After the failure of the D-Day invasion, Germany invaded England." What? Really? Certainly it's believable that the D-Day invasion could have failed. Even Eisenhower was afraid of that. But even if it had failed, could the Germans have invaded England? In 1944? Germany was losing on the Eastern Front. The Soviets were steadily advancing toward Germany's borders. The Germans wouldn't have been able to spare the resources necessary to successfully invade England in 1944. (I read one reviewer who suggested that in this timeline Germany had defeated the Soviet Union. Maybe - but I honestly don't remember that being stated in the movie.) If this had been set in 1940, when Germany was at peace with the Soviet Union and at the height of its power? If this had been a depiction of a successful "Operation Sea Lion"? Maybe. But not the scenario presented. That just didn't work for me. So, right from the start this movie had a huge credibility gap with me.

It doesn't recover from that. There's an intriguing enough mystery. In a Welsh village (post German invasion of England) all the women wake up and discover that all the men are simply gone. Where did they go - and, more mysterious, how did they get away without anyone noticing. None of the women woke up when their men were getting out of bed? One presumes that they left to join the resistance - which the title implies - but who knows. It wasn't really the point of the story anyway. The point was the relationship between the women and the German occupiers of the village, because at some point a handful of German soldiers come wandering into the village. They're nice fellows, really. They help the women out with farm work and do some hunting of rabbits to provide them with food. They give up their uniforms and settle easily into life in the Welsh village. You'd hardly know there was a war going on. You see the swastika a couple of times - but there's nothing particularly ominous about it. Life pretty much goes on as it did before - with the German soldiers there instead of the men, although there's nothing "inappropriate" that happens between the Germans and the women. Yeah, a bit of a romance develops, but it's quite proper. The most dramatic moment of the movie is the accidental shooting of a horse by someone in the British resistance who I think meant to kill the woman who owned the horse, believing her to be a "collaborator." But in terms of any sustained drama - this was a real dud.

It disappointed me. There's a lot of potential in the story of a fictional German occupation of a British village. But none of that potential showed itself here. And the constant flashbacks to pre- invasion (or at least pre-occupation) served no real purpose and accomplished little. If somebody wanted to make this kind of film then why not base it on real events, like the German occupation of Britain's Channel Islands? (2/10)

A very thin plot

[gas_paol · 3/10 · 13 April 2014]

A really disappointing film. Adding 40/50 minutes of people staring in silence at someone or at something doesn't make a film poetic, gentle and sensitive, it's just a trick to water down the screenplay and save a lot of money for a low-budget film. The screenplay, by the way, is quite ordinary and unconvincing. In fact the action and the dialogues are so rare here, that almost all of them, the essential ones at least, are in the trailer. It's even funny to think that the film is practically the trailer plus silence and some beautiful views of the welsh mountains. This could be easily a 10-15 minutes short film without losing anything of the plot.

Intriguing Premise, Uneven Results

[lavatch · 3/10 · 30 March 2017]

The fascinating premise of "Resistance" is that Germany repelled the D-Day invasion and eventually won the Second World War. In the waning stages of the war, a small German army contingent arrives in Wales where they discover a small rural area where all the menfolk have fled to fight in the resistance. The German soldiers get settled in the community, and the major dramatic action is how the local Welsh women will react to the soldiers, who apparently treat the women with kindness.

This premise had tremendous potential to explore what constitutes "resistance" versus "collaboration." It is clear that the local men left their homes to resist the invading Nazis. But what about the women? Are they in their own capacities also resisting? Or, have they capitulated when they accept favors from their occupiers? The focal point is the character Sarah, who remains committed to her husband Tom, despite the attention paid her by the German captain. The actress Andrea Louise Riseborough is excellent in the main role.

Unfortunately, the good potential of this drama is not realized because the film never probes deeply into the main topic of collaboration. Riseborough's character never seems curious about the fate of her husband, and the ending of the film is especially disappointing, due to its vagueness.

There was beautiful photography of the Welsh landscape, and the performers were excellent. But much of this film did not make sense. It was never clear why the victorious German soldiers would risk their lives by remaining in a small community where they were obviously not welcome. And why should the kid who is fighting in the resistance movement kill the poor woman who traveled with the colt to try to discover the whereabouts of her husband?

Above all, it was unclear why the strong-willed women, fully capable of resistance, did not resist! At the same time, they really didn't "collaborate" either! In a film called "Resistance," there was not enough substance to do justice to the title.

Why was I watching this?

[willnuts · 1/10 · 11 June 2020]

This movie is garbage, waste of time. Worst is they play this crap like it actually happened, reality check, Germany never occupied Wales, wasn't ever near it.

5e Director just made a cheap movie to make cash.

Plus too boring, nothing happens the end.

Be resistant to watch this

[jimlacy2003 · 2/10 · 1 April 2012]

In a nutshell:

Boring, Soap opera bad - overly dramatic, uninspiring, unbelievable. And ultimately pretty unwatchable.

From the start it looks like a bad low budget made for TV movie. My first thought after a few minutes of watching this was: Hey is that Michael Sheen? Looks like him, it can't be. What is such an accomplished actor (B-List?) doing in this movie.

First the premise of the alternate scenario of England having been invaded is not a new one. It's been done in other movies in a lot more interesting way. Incidentally who knows, if Hitler had one the "Battle of Britain", and knew that Germany could have had air superiority with a little more push, that "Operation Sea Lion" (England invasion plan)could have happened.

From the start the acting, and, or, the characters are bland. It doesn't hook you in. You know this is going to be a long boring watch.

There are much better WW2 and for that matter any other genre movie to watch. Skip this one..