The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, based on the novel by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, based on the novel by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows

In spite of some weaker aspects, this motion picture offers ultimately a rewarding experience, with some very good performance – with the exception of the less than convincing Michiel Huisman as Dawsey Adams – and a very good story.

Lily James promises to become an outstanding star, perhaps on a level with Judy Dench and others from the glorious British School of Acting, and her presence in this film as the heroine Juliet Ashton confirms the good roles she had in Downton Abbey and Darkest Hour.

Indeed, a few actresses from Downton Abbey are reunited on the set of this feature, the aforementioned Lily James, Jessica Brown Findlay as Elizabeth McKenna and Penelope Wilton in the role of Amelia Maugery.

Juliet Ashton is a writer who receives a letter from Dawsey Adams, who talks about The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, a subject that gets the attention of the young author, who writes back with inquiries, the resulting correspondence urging her to travel to the island.

When she arrives on Guernsey Island, she meets the man she has corresponded with, but they do not recognize each other – of course, there was no reason to, since they had not seen each other before – and the writer is guided to ask at the post office about accommodation.

There may have been a spark, for the encounter dazzled the man who keeps dropping the shingles he is supposed to carry to a building and he would later joke that he nearly killed the visitor with his awkwardness.

Tom Courtenay, the legendary hero from The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner, Last Orders, The Dresser, Billy Liar and other classics, is the post office master, Eben Ramsey, and a member of the Literary Society where the guest is invited to read.

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society was born during the Nazi occupation of the island, although to begin with, is started as a conspiracy to slaughter a piglet, raised by Amelia Maugery and Elizabeth McKenna, who invite over Dawsey, Isola Pribby and Eben Ramsey who share the rare, gargantuan for the famine that affected the island- and other parts of Europe and the world – meal.

This was more a celebration of friendship and strong bonds between these people who formed a family and when the Germans stopped them, they said that their gathering is in the name of the Society that is invented on the spot, in order to deceive the occupiers.

Nevertheless, the Literary Club would continue to exist, even after the war and the Potato Peel Pie part of it is due to the contribution brought by Eben Ramsey, who had nothing to bring to the pig feast, where Isola brings her homemade gin, but a pie made of potatoes and peels.

Like everywhere, there are some vicious people on the island, one of them bent on insulting this society and its members, referring to collaboration with the Nazis and to an informer who allowed the occupiers to punish severely one of the bravest, most generous humans to live in Guernsey and elsewhere.

Elizabeth McKenna loves a German, who is friendly and ultimately a supporter of the Allies and against the doctrine of his fascist comrades, reason for which he would have to suffer terribly, for his fraternizing with the enemy, relationship out of which a baby would be born, cared for by Dawsey.

Juliet Ashton wants to write about the Society, but Amelia Maugery vehemently opposes the prospect, since she has lost a relative in the war, then became very attached to Elizabeth McKenna, only to see her endanger her life often, entering and opposing a fascist march at one time, only to be lost too later, making Mrs. Maugery fear that if she has lost so much to this war, she can still lose another dear friend, a relative really.

She would later help a prisoner- there were people brought in by the Germans from Eastern Europe and elsewhere and forced to work on Guernsey in appalling, outrageous conditions, starved, beaten and abused.

Dawsey warns her about the death danger, but the brave, dedicated, perseverant, self-sacrificing woman offers refuge to the man who is caught and shot dead, while she is taken to the continent and nothing is known about her fate, if however her destiny is to be expected.

Juliet Ashton is engaged to be married to the American Mark Reynolds, whom she asks to find what he can about the fate of the missing Elizabeth, while she spends time on the island with her new family.

When the American fiancé finds the answers, he travels to Guernsey, surprising the would be Mrs. Reynolds in a tender scene with the “pig farmer” and after this he acts with arrogance, superiority and makes the task of breaking the enjoyment easier for the changed Juliet Ashton.

The news – which have actually taken place years ago – brought by Mark Reynolds refers to the fact that Elizabeth McKenna has died during the war, after she had opposed a guard who was abusing another prisoner, that victim was spared and the saintly woman was shot instead.

There is sadness, heartbreak in this motion picture, but there may also be a love story that lifts the spirits of the viewers, with Juliet finding the knight in shining armor under the cover of the pig farmer, the somewhat unpolished and not excellently played Dawsey.