This chronicle of one man's determination to help persecuted Jewish intellectuals and artists escape from Vichy France at the beginning of WWII is the kind of true-life tale Hollywood loves to tell. It contains all the nobility of intention, the dramatic situations and the supposedly interesting characters required for a hearty liberal paean to America's self-proclaimed moral superiority. Despite its premise, however, the only remotely interesting aspect of Varian's War is its based-on-fact background, thanks largely to a conservative-in-the-extreme visual style.

William Hurt at his, by turns, most mannered and somnambulistic plays Varian Fry, a Harvard-educated journalist and member of the chattering classes, moved to form the Emergency Rescue Committee (ERC) after a trip to Berlin in 1938 reveals the extent of Nazi intentions. Being an elitist, his plan is to raise money and find a way to smuggle elite Jewish artists and intellectuals out of Vichy France, in order to, as he puts it, "save the soul of Europe."

On the list? The likes of painter Marc Chagall, historical writer Heinrich Mann, political philosopher Hannah Arendt, novelists Leon Feuchtwanger and Franz Werfel, as well as Werfel's wife Alma (an imperious Lynn Redgrave) who happened to have been married previously to Walter Gropius and Gustav Mahler.

Revealing elements of moral and physical courage previously unknown to his friends and colleagues, Fry moves to Marseilles and quietly enlists like-minded colleagues Miriam (Julia Ormond) and Beamish (Matt Craven). Fry and his friends set up a network despite official U.S. opposition to his cause and constant harassment from the pro-Nazi Vichy French State Police (headed by Colonel Joubert, essayed nicely by great Quebecois actor Remy Girard).

It's not hard to see what will happen next and that is the main problem in Varian's War. Everything is set in stone from the moment the film opens. Of course Fry will be opposed by friends who think his efforts dangerous and futile. Of course he will recruit heroic comrades willing to risk their lives. Of course they will play a game of cat-and-mouse with the State Police. And, of course, they will eventually succeed in getting Chagall, Arendt and the others to safety (because, of course, we know they didn't die in the camps).

If Varian's War were not based on a true story, it probably wouldn't have been made into a feature film at all, because it's dramatic arc, conservative style (Canadian-raised director Chetwynd won an Emmy for his 1995 mini-series The Bible) and lack of character development reveal nothing new whatsoever. In fact, Varian's War was made for the Showtime cable network in the U.S. and is only being distributed theatrically in other markets.

Still, the film is trying to tell a previously unknown story about a man the production notes refer to as "the American Schindler" (of course), and the film's honourable intentions are obvious throughout. Unfortunately, as screenwriter William Goldman noted in his great book Adventures in the Screen Trade, reality does not necessarily make good fiction.