Without giving too much away, I will say that the power of the story depends on its believability, on the audience’s ability to perceive Robbie and Cecilia in wartime as suffering, flesh-and-blood creatures. Mr. McAvoy and Ms. Knightley sigh and swoon credibly enough, but they are stymied by the inertia of the filmmaking, and by the film’s failure to find a strong connection between the fates of the characters and the ideas and historical events that swirl around them.

话说回来，我认为故事的力量源于它的可信性，战时的Robbie和Cecillia应该有血有肉，他们的遭遇观众也应该感同身受。McAvoy和Knightley哀叹、思恋的表现令人信服，却受制于影视制作的惰性，同时影片也未能在人物命运与人物周围的观念和历史事件之间找到有力的关联。