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It appears that spring/summer of 2022 will be the season of the Dad film, and that’s all right (I’m a dad after all). While Top Gun: Maverick will be sucking the oxygen out of the film world later this month, this month we also got a perfectly lovable World War II film in the guise of Operation Mincemeat. And it’s very much worth watching if a little long and slow.
For those unfamiliar with Operation Mincemeat, it’s the codename for a secret operation in World War II where the British concocted an elaborate plot to fool the Germans into thinking the allies would invade Greece, not Sicily (the actual target). The plot involved deception, creativity, daring-do, and requisitioning a dead body.
And I’m not making any of this up – it all actually happened and was told expertly in a bestselling book of the same name by Ben Macintyre a few years ago. So, of course, the story was ripe to be turned into a film – especially since a certain Ian Fleming, who’d go on to create James Bond, was involved in the whole episode.
This film asks the question – what would it be like if incompetent in love Darcy from Bridget Jones’s Diary was also a war hero? Colin Firth plays the lead character aristocrat Ewen Montagu, who’s having marital problems while also fighting a war. He is very much playing the role Colin Firth is always great at playing, that being an upper-class British gentleman with baggage.
The film also stars Kelly Macdonald (who’s fantastic), Matthew Macfadyen (who’s amazing in this), Penelope Wilton, Johnny Flynn, and Jason Isaacs. All the actors in this film are at the top of their game. It’s directed expertly by John Madden, who’s no stranger to making historical films (Mrs. Brown, Captain Corelli’s Mandolin, The Debt amongst others). Every role is perfectly cast, they have done well here.
When this film was announced, and the cast subsequently announced, I was rather excited about it. I do like a good World War II film, set in Britain. And this film is lush with its setting. The characters walk around blackout London with flashlights low to the ground almost completely in the dark. In contrast with the bright scenes of the bars and clubs that still manage to stay open during the war and provide our characters a respite as they plot their scheme to fool the germans.
We’re a bit behind the curve on the release of this film – it came out in the UK back in February. Netflix purchased the rights to release it in North America, and it was released last week, with little fanfare from Netflix (I didn’t even realize it was released until the Netflix recommendation algorithm suggested I might like to watch it – it was right, obviously). I do rather wish it had been released in theaters, it would have been nice to see such a lush and epic film on the big screen. Streaming it on a TV at home just wasn’t the same.
The film is expertly told, the plot – using a dead body to trick the Germans – is almost not enough to fill an entire movie – so they add a lot of drama and color with the characters’ personal lives (this may not appeal to those more interested in the spying and deception). The movie becomes more about them than what they’re doing, and that’s fine. We also get a will they/won’t they repressed English love story (a la Remains of the Day). We all know how it ends anyway, so it’s nice to connect with some interesting characters, living through a difficult and momentous time (and all that entails).
There is an element of World War II film bingo here. Is there Churchill? Check. Smoke-filled dark rooms? Check. Ian Fleming? Check. Repressed English emotion. Check. Blitz-threatened London? Check. Aristocrats doing their bit? Check. Arrogant Germans? Check. Commanding British officers with a bad attitude? Check.
You could almost think of this film as a clever James Bond prequel not just because of the connections to Ian Fleming, but because the plot is so outlandish, it’s perfect for a James Bond movie plot. And while Fleming’s exploits during the war are well known, he does feel rather shoehorned in, as he’s not a main character in the film but given a lot of screen time.
I will say that it does feel as if the film is rather long, like too much butter spread on toast. At one point, Mrs. Anglotopia, who was enjoying the film exclaimed “is this film ever going to end?” The run time is well over two hours, and it doesn’t help that it’s rather slow when you know how it’s going to end. It does finally end, and it’s fine. This will become a regular watch in my British films collection.
I would give it 8/10 Red Phone Boxes on my new Anglotopia ratings scale (I am endeavoring to write more reviews of things).
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