Kaitlyn Baker lives with her husband and two Shiba Inus in Vancouver. When she’s not writing, Kaitlyn loves to explore the Pacific Northwest, travel with her friends, find an undiscovered book series and of course binge-watch Netflix.
I take mindbender movies on the regular, but when I need to unwind romance is my go to.
Now, I can’t claim to be a sage on romance movies (I mean, I just saw Sleepless in Seattle for the first time a few months ago), but I’ve read and seen enough romance to know that tropes run rampant throughout the genre. When Netflix suggested I watch one of their originals, “The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society,” I was pleasantly surprised to find unique storytelling that strayed from the mind-numbing patterns of tortured heroines, alpha heroes and class warfare. Instead, there’s charming Juliet Ashton (Lily James) and headstrong Elizabeth McKenna (Jessica Brown Findlay) who use their tragic pasts to build upon their character rather than hold them back. There’s also Dawsey Adams (Michiel Huisman), Markham Reynolds (Glen Powell) and Sidney Stark (Matthew Goode) who support Juliet through her decision making rather than force her into it, and finally, we have a Society that is formed from people of all walks of life, created solely for companionship (and a little bit of survival, I suppose) during WWII’s German occupation.
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society is about closure from one of the worst wars mankind has ever seen. We see a freshly painted sky-blue door and luxury apartments amidst rubble in London, imposing industrial bunkers atop a flourishing Guernsey cliffside and jazzy parties bubbling with champagne and jitterbugging. Each and every member of the Society, including little 5-year-old Kit (Florence Keen), gets their moment to overcome the damage left on them from the war. I’ll admit, at the beginning I was a little put off by the number of characters introduced in a movie running two hours. More often than not there isn’t enough time to allow for an emotional connection or to completely develop the characters from their flawed beginnings, but the strategic, non-chronological storytelling and tear-inducing acting left me with another movie to add to my watch-monthly list.
Juliet is the easiest character to fall in love with. Not only do we see her struggle with the repercussions of the war, but she also has to cope with being a female writer in the 1940s. The combination of the two leaves her with a loss of identity and some survivor’s guilt, but with inspiration gained through her letter-exchange with Dawsey Adams, she decides to rediscover herself on the isle of Guernsey by learning about the creation of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society and uncovering the mystery of Elizabeth Mckenna’s absence.
Juliet’s romantic developments are where we best see the movie abandon genre tropes.
Typically I’m left shoving my head in a pillow or yelling at the screen in frustration because of some nonsensical decision making on the protagonist’s part, but instead I was left with nothing to gripe at and a mouthful of praise to unload on anyone willing to listen (in this case it turned out to be my poor unsuspecting husband and now you, the readers).
Guernsey’s costume designer Charlotte Walter and cinematographer Zac Nicholson also played a crucial role in setting the tone for success in this movie. The first shot of Juliet has her in a beautifully designed royal blue hat that provides a strong angular silhouette alluding to her success and wealth. Its color and height are a stark contrast to the grey London wasteland she and Sidney are traveling through and it’s the first hint of escapism she’s buried herself in to cope with the past. In a scene further along in the movie, a combination of Amelia Maugery’s (Penelope Wilton) painful anecdote and the way the shot was framed was powerful enough to make me ugly cry all three times I watched the movie. Amazing acting aside, the wide, low shot of Amelia standing by herself, arms crossed in front of her as if to make herself appear as small as possible and surrounded by darkness despite the warm glow of candles in the background adds to her sense of loneliness and loss — and the amount of tissues you’ll end up needing.
I suppose the satisfying part of the movie is its focus on family and mystery as opposed to romance. Sure, there’s a love triangle and babies and forbidden relationships, but the moments that were integral to character and plot development came from Juliet’s interactions with the Society, Sidney, and Mark in her quest to find Elizabeth McKenna. The historical aspect of the movie was also unlike any other WWII movie I’ve seen. Instead of battlefields lit with explosions and riddled with corpses, the most gruesome image we receive are the lines of dirty and tortured Todt workers running their way to the bunkers while sharing a potato between them. Through visions of the past, there’s still a sense of how horrid the war was on the front lines. I appreciated this uniqueness above all because it lent a different perspective to a story that’s been retold time and time again.
I’m an optimist when it comes to movies, so it doesn’t take much for me to like a title, but I only have a select few on my list of movies that I watch repeatedly (“Amélie,” “Clueless” and “How to Make a Million,” to name a few). The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society is so heavily layered with easter eggs that I’m confident this movie will be a great addition to my list, and from its variety of genre, relatable characters, and beautiful sets I urge my fellow Netflix subscribers to promptly add it to their watch lists.
About the writer
Kaitlyn Baker lives with her husband and two Shiba Inus in Vancouver, Washington. When she’s not writing, Kaitlyn loves to explore the Pacific Northwest, travel with her friends, find an undiscovered book series and of course binge-watch Netflix.
