The myriad of accents make it a tough slog...

By way of disclosure, I am a considerable fan of David Lean's films: The Bridge on the River Kwai, Lawrence of Arabia, Brief Encounter, A Passage to India, et al. have shaped my youth and my understanding of film. Even a seemingly ordinary concept like This Happy Breed shows that Lean, directing Noel Coward's script, could evoke intense drama from household situations.

Having said that, anyone who sees this movie for the first time is going to find the dialog to be a hodgepodge of accents.

That is an unavoidable entanglement in a film like this: a group of survivors from a sunken ship, all from different parts of England, cannot help but speak with different accents. Their characters are a mixed bunch, just by happenstance. (And besides, we can't ALL sound like David Hasselhoff...)

But just like with a show like the original Shameless, you're going to lose half the storyline when some of these actors talk and you'll have to watch it a second time just so it makes sense.