This is a BBC television film. And there's not much to expect, especially while watching through the first sequences. It's a story with an interesting concept and background: the story of men who went to Berlin in the interbellum period to seek pleasure with other men, and all the turmoil that befalls them with the rise of the Nazists. Promising for a dramatic story in film. The problem is the poor cast, and poor direction of acting. When I say poor, I mean plainly mediocre. Nothing special, and it lowers the level of the storytelling. The protagonist, Christopher Isherwood is played by a forcefully posh-accented Englishman (the famous Eleventh Doctor from Doctor Who, Matt Smith), is uninteresting and completely passive in the role of being a protagonist, merely watching the story go by him, and not in the good, narrative-friendly sense. No, it'd be perfect that way. It's in the poor, "important character that doesn't develop and drags the whole cast and story down with him" fashion. An average film with great themes at hand and a strange way of executing them.
Just to balance things out a little more: the soundtrack is excellent.
Director: Geoffrey Sax.
Score
Cinematography: 7.5
Acting: 6.5
Editing: 7.0
Sound: 8.5
Text: 8.0
Concept: 8.0
Premise Execution: 6.0
Average Score: 7.3
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