Affecting Romance in Meandering ‘Moment’

“For the Moment” is an affecting wartime romance, but its potential impact is diminished somewhat by a plodding pace and too many extraneous elements; it’s a two-hour movie that should have come in at 90 minutes.

Even so, it’s easy to care about Russell Crowe’s Australian airman and Christianne Hirt’s Canadian farm woman, who in predicament and environment bring to mind Meryl Streep and Clint Eastwood in “The Bridges of Madison County.”

Crowe’s Lachlan has been sent to Manitoba in 1942 to be trained at one of Canada’s nearly 100 air bases. The instant he meets Hirt’s Lill, the attraction is mutual, but their romance develops slowly because Lill is married; her husband has been off to war for the last three years.

Circumstances and Lachlan’s undeniable charm and sincerity guarantee that they will eventually find themselves in each other’s arms, and they’re capable of facing up to the consequences like the honest adults they are. In the meantime, Lill is lonely and she could lose her husband or Lachlan, once he’s in battle, or both at any time. Surely, they aren’t the only World War II couple who became involved “for the moment.”

Since it is wartime, death is to be expected, but writer-producer-director Aaron Kim Johnston overdoes it, lapsing into tear-jerking, when he kills off one of his story’s most likable characters in a training accident (which incidentally takes the life of a minor gay character. Why the gay man among so many men, and if so, why then are we not entitled to see his lover’s reaction?). In any event, Johnston should have pared down characters and incidents to concentrate on his intimate love story or brought something of the rousing energy Raoul Walsh brought to his multi-character 1956 World War II saga “Battle Cry.”

Crowe and Hirt, however, are highly appealing, and Lachlan and Lill emerge as individuals of substance. Their essential seriousness is set off effectively by another couple--the breezy Betsy (Wanda Cannon, a wonderful actress), who loathes the husband who’s off to battle and has become the local hussy, and the handsome, big-hearted American flight instructor (Scott Kraft, also impressive) with whom she finds true love.

“For the Moment” has an authentic period look and feel that is one of its key pluses. It’s a nice movie that you want to be better than it actually is.

* MPAA rating: PG-13, for sexual situations, language and a poignant death. Times guidelines: The film includes complex adult themes and emotions too intense for children.

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‘For the Moment’

Russell Crowe: Lachlan

Christianne Hirt: Lill

Wanda Cannon: Betsy

Scott Kraft: Zeek

A 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment presentation of a John Aarons Features II/Jack Clements/Aaron Kim Johnston production in co-production with the National Film Board of Canada. Writer-producer-director Aaron Kim Johnston. Producers Clements, Johnston. Cinematographer Ian Elkin. Editor Rita Roy. Costumes Charlotte Penner. Music Victor Davies. Production designer Andrew Deskin. Running time: 2 hours.

* Exclusively at the Music Hall, 9036 Wilshire Blvd., Beverly Hills, (310) 274-6869.