text: This film flopped miserably in the UK, and it didn't deserve to. The trailer of this film is slightly misleading, and I guess it mislead critics and audiences into thinking it was "Atonement: Part 2". While the film was marketed that way to capitalise on the earlier success of Joe Wright's BAFTA-winning film, it's very different in tone. It focuses on an imagination of sorts of Welsh poet Dylan Thomas' life during the Second World War as the writer of propaganda films for the war effort, and his subsequent return to Wales. Director John Maybury quickly introduces Dylan's (Matthew Ryhs) childhood sweetheart Vera Phillips, played by Keira Knightley. She was Dylan's first love in their homeland, but the moment has passed, and singer Vera only wants it as a beautiful memory. Or does she? Vera unexpectedly strikes up a close bond with the other woman in Dylan's life, "Queen of Ireland, love of my life, mother of my child" Caitlin Thomas (Sienna Miller). The three form a sort of menage a trois in war-struck London, but Vera then falls for a dashing soldier, William Killick (Cillian Murphy). They quickly marry, with Killick leaving for War. A frightened Vera convinces the Thomas' to return witb her to Wales, but the three are faced with the realism of the birth of Vera's child, William's jealousy and shell-shock after returning home, and Caitlin realising she cannot share Dylan with her best friend.<br /><br />Filmed on a low budget, this is more of a mood piece than anything else. It works best as a realisation that some memories and feelings need to be treasured but not renewed. The performance of Sienna Miller is particularly excrellent (unfortunately the paparazzi nonsense detracts from the fact thats she's quite a talent), and Knightley and Murphy are once again very good. The let-down is Rhys as Dylan, who, while the Welsh poet himself was no bed of roses, lacks charisma and makes us wonder what these women see in Dylan. The writing is very choppy, some beautiful moments interspersed with sloppiness. It's certainly worth watching, however.