Film Shapes

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,...