From This Day Forward

Try as she might, Joan Fontaine just cannot make a silk purse from the sow's ear on show here from John Berry. She portrays "Susan", a young assistant in a bookshop who has married "Bill" (Mark Stevens). Flashback fills in the gaps as this young couple meet and fall in love before WWII intervenes and when he returns, the pair must adjust to post war life. The film effectively illustrates the difficulties faced by returning soldiers, and of their spouses and families, as they all try to adapt to their new circumstances. For "Bill", that involves dealing with the ennui (I suppose it might be considered a form of PTSD nowadays) that proves particularly hard to accommodate. The challenges also entail getting a new job and finding the money to keep his family going. For "Susan" - well, the challenges for her are somewhat different but what is enlivening about the whole thing is the pair's enduring affection for each other. They struggle, with each other and their tough, unforgiving, environment and that struggle turns both of them into something that would be, frankly, rather difficult to love. A solid template for a story, but sadly for me there was way too much dialogue. It's an adaptation of Thomas Bell's book, but it is quite possible that this feature has more words! Fontaine glows, but underperforms as an actress - she lacks character in this portrayal and at times the whole thing just comes across as a bit to earnest. The production is proficient, and the score complimentary as their relationship ebb and flows. It's an interesting observation of how life might have been, but I'd rather have done more watching and less listening.