Melancholy runs deep in "Private Peaceful," a richly appointed British period piece about fraternal loyalty adapted from the book of the same name by "War Horse" author Michael Morpurgo.

| Oct 31, 2014

A World War I fable that's as stiff as an Eton collar and as plodding as a draft horse.

| Oct 30, 2014

A long, long, trail a-winding, to be sure. But fans of PBS, history and a certain kind of old-fashioned moviemaking may fall in.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Oct 30, 2014

By modestly embracing its inherent minimalism and finding the emotions underlying even the most schematic of scenarios, the film taps into something unmistakably human.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Oct 29, 2014

O'Connor captures all the beauty of these rural childhoods without skimping on the harsh realities of 20th-century feudalism.

| Oct 28, 2014

The story is told with a flashback structure which was rather nimbler on the page than it is here, and much of the dialogue grants the characters uncanny powers of foresight.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Oct 12, 2012

Essentially conventional in his approach, director Pat O'Connor has delivered a mostly faithful and moving account of Morpurgo's fine book.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Oct 12, 2012

O'Connor shows his old-school expertise in the charming country childhood sequences, where the film feels most individual and alive.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Oct 11, 2012

Private Peaceful is a small-scale story in essence, which works efficiently on the non-epic scale in which it's presented.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Oct 11, 2012

Minor pacing gripes aside, this is a moving tale about humanity's darkest depths.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Oct 11, 2012

The lacklustre landscapes are all of a wash with the watercolour performances and pallidly portentous tableaux of war and peace.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Oct 11, 2012

With the feel of prestige telly, it's nicely done, sweet and moving.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Oct 7, 2012