The Jane Austen multiverse is finally here, as Colin Firth and Matthew Macfadyen butt heads in this Second World War drama...
Director: John Madden
Starring: Colin Firth, Matthew Macfadyen, Kelly Macdonald
Running time: 128 minutes
We love a good spy story. And whether it’s the guns, girls and gadgets of Bond, the weaponised Britishness of The Kingsman, or the American government’s repeated violations of Jason Bourne’s GDPR rights, half the fun of a spy film is the sheer outlandishness. Surely, we tell ourselves, the reality is much more mundane? Less Licence to Kill and more data analysis.
Well, not always. Operation Mincemeat is the “truth is almost as strange as fiction” tale of how, with the lives of 100,000 allied soldiers and the future liberation of Europe in the balance, a team of British spies conceived and executed a plan that even Ethan Hunt, the face-changing, plane-hugging spy from the Mission Impossible films, might think a bit far-fetched: dress a dead body up as a British Officer, plant documents on his person indicating that the target of an impending Allied offensive was not Italy (it was) but occupied Greece, and then float it off the coast of neutral, but Axis-friendly, Spain, in the hopes that its documents would be shown to (and believed by) the Germans.
Colin Firth stars as Ivan Montagu, a barrister turned naval commander turned spy (sorry, sorry, “requisitions officer”). He gives a wonderfully understated performance as a man who is both sincerely but imperfectly devoted to both is country and his family. His sense of duty prevents him from fleeing wartime Britain to America with his family, and yet his sense of family loyalty blinds him to the danger of sharing a roof with his inquisitive brother, whose politics mark him as a potential Russian spy, while working on such a sensitive operation.
Some scenes are masterful. Others are clunky
Montagu is assisted by RAF Penguin (an officer who does not fly) Charles Cholmondeley (pronounced “Chumly”), played by Matthew McFayden. McFayden steals every scene he is in. Bookish, awkward, and a bit of a mummy’s boy, his Cholmondeley is a most unlikely hero. Rounding out the trio is MI5 clerk Jean Leslie (Kelly Macdonald), who allows her photograph to be placed in the fictitious soldier’s wallet as his girlfriend in exchange for a greater role in the operation.
As these three set out to source a suitable body (finding a dead man of military age is surprisingly difficult during a war, apparently), develop a believable backstory for their fictional soldier (a Major Martin of the Royal Marines) and give their false documents the ring of truth, they risk getting wrapped up in the glamour and romance of their own spy story.
Some scenes are masterful. The characters’ excitement as they write their own spy story in real time is infectious. A scene in which Cholmondeley adorably apologises his way through a row of cinema-goers introduces both the character and his world perfectly. The efforts of a British agent in Spain to ensure the documents are found by the Germans while appearing to do the opposite are hilarious.
While a bit too long and not without its flaws, Operation Mincemeat is a tense, moving and funny look at one of the Second World War's weirder episodes
Others are clunky – the love triangle between Montagu, Cholmondeley and Jean seems forced and unnecessary, and a scene in which the otherwise kindly Cholmondeley spitefully tries to sabotage a brewing romance between Montagu and Jean is out of character and uncomfortable to watch.
If Operation Mincemeat has a flaw, it’s that it does not know what it is. Trailers suggest a Death of Stalin-esque black comedy, but the film is also a sweeping war epic and a claustrophobic spy thriller. But perhaps that’s as much due to the nature of its subject matter. That the film – mostly - succeeds in blending these three genres is to director John Madden’s credit.
Yet it is one of the film’s strengths that it never allows either its characters or its viewers to forget the very human stakes that rest on this operation. Jean’s will-they-won’t-they love interest, the likeable American Sergeant Dearborn, gives a human face to the thousands of young men who will face the German and Italian guns if the deception fails, while Montagu’s family have fled, not to escape the hardships of wartime London, but because they are Jewish and their lives would be forfeit if the Germans invade. And for all the film’s macabre humour, the scene in which the body – a deceased homeless man named Glydwr Michael – is washed ashore is shot beautifully and sensitively.
While a bit too long and not without its flaws, Operation Mincemeat is a tense, moving and funny look at one of World War II’s weirder episodes that’s well worth a watch.
Did you know? In real life, Operation Mincemeat had its origins in a memo written by naval officer Ian Fleming, who would later create the most famous spy of all, a certain James Bond.
Operation Mincemeat is showing at Broadway Cinema until Tuesday 26 April
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