Operation Mincemeat

This film was on a hiding to nothing from the start. The actual story of Operation Mincemeat is so unlikely, so fanciful that any rendition would be hard pressed to do it justice. As far as accuracy goes, the writer, Michelle Ashford and director, John Madden have been scrupulously loyal to the events and people involved (give or take a romantic misfire and an invented character or two). In 1943, British intelligence were looking for a way to convince the Germans that the planned Allied invasion was going to be somewhere other than Sicily, the actual target. Two officers suggested reviving an earlier plan (probably devised by Bond author, Lieutenant Commander Ian Fleming) to drop a dead body in the sea near Spain with papers indicting Greece to be the spot. Deception afoot!

The film revolves around the small team tasked with planning the ruse - the aforementioned duo, lawyer Ewan Montagu (Colin Firth) and intelligence officer Charles Cholmondeley (Matthew Macfadyen), along with clerk, Jean Leslie (Kelly McDonald), and Montagu's assistant, Hester Leggett (Penelope Wilton). A shedload of acquainted characters, including Fleming (Johnny Flynn) and Admiral John Godfrey (Jason Isaacs) orbit this group, but the focus remains on the core four. The platonic romance between Firth and McDonald doesn't work, much better is Macfadyen's bristling jealousy - this is the best I've seen him. His is the most natural performance in this stiffly British, po-faced war panto, though Isaacs was fun in a stern, one-note role.

Some of the writing was forced, especially the spoon-fed stuff with Fleming - they want to be very clear that the audience knows that THIS IS THE GUY WHO WROTE THE 007 BOOKS!! If only the whole film was based around the guys in Spain - one Sancho Panza dude (Will Keen), one bisexual gadabout (Nicholas Rowe) paying for favours with hand jobs. The film took a much needed deviation with these fellas. It seems they were either not historically accurate, or a compilation of characters, but this is the part of the film that very nearly redeems this well-intentioned work of fustiness. A more adventurous, less hackneyed director that Madden might have done justice to this incredible story.

Operation Mincemeat opens May 12th.

See also:

Bletchley Park is mentioned a couple of times in this, so for a better coverage of the times, try Morten Tyldum's film about Alan Turing and the Enigma code, The Imitation Game (2014). On a tangent, Swiss Army Man (2016), directed by Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, makes use of a corpse (Harry Potter, indeed), but in a very different way.