Illustrating that no state-sponsored persecution is so shameful that it can't serve as a springboard for an old-fashioned romantic triangle, Dark Blue World opens with a short explanation of the story of several Czechoslovakian pilots who fled for England to fight the Nazis with Britain's Royal Air Force. Instead of giving them a hero's welcome upon their return, the post-war Communist government made them political prisoners, distrusting their rebellious instincts and time spent abroad. The latest from Czech director Jan Sverák (last seen throwing a heart-melting orphan in the path of a middle-aged bachelor in Kolya) touches on this intrigue only as a framing device, concentrating instead on the high-flying wartime adventures of the future prisoners. Ondrej Vetchy, a soulful actor who looks like a younger Robert De Niro, leads the high-spirited, fish-out-of-water fly boys as they learn English and adapt to the RAF's eccentric training methods, while waiting to take to the air. Meanwhile, audiences can try to guess which colorful character will buy the farm first. The stutterer? The kid who collects nudie postcards? Maybe the man named Mrtvy, the Czech word for "dead man"? Love provides a temporary distraction from Nazi bombardments when Vetchy's youthful sidekick (Krystof Hádek) crash-lands near the home of a missing sailor's comely wife (Tara Fitzgerald). After a night of passion, Fitzgerald turns her attention to the more mature Vetchy, initiating a cycle of passion, betrayal, alienation, and noble sacrifice that will look familiar to anyone who faintly remembers watching a war movie. Well acted enough to remain preferable to the homegrown WWII love triangle of Pearl Harbor, Dark Blue World (a Titanic-style hit in the Czech Republic) would be a lot more tolerable if the direction and the screenplay by Zdenak Sverák (the director's father) had a hint of shame. By the time Vetchy's loyal pooch is brought in to evoke sympathy, the cause has already been lost.