History is, basically, the stories we tell ourselves. Fact is muddled somewhere in it, but it is some human element that binds it together. Much of historical dramas operate on this principle. No film could completely depict the events as they unfolded. However, we don’t expect it to be created from whole cloth either. A balance is struck between the machine of Hollywood filmmaking and the adherence to the truth. In some ways, this can yield middling results. Much of Netflix’s latest Operation Mincemeat falls into this region.
Taking place in the months leading up the invasion of Sicily in World War II, the clandestine tactics of British Intelligence try to make headway against the Nazis. Through ingenuity a group comes up with letting a body wash up in Axis territory with false information about where the Allied plan to strike. At first the idea seems absurd to higher-ups including Winston Churchill. However, the plan is given the go-ahead due the team’s fortitude. For those who haven’t read Ben McIntyre’s book of the same name, this may come as new to you.
The production feels like a kind of film you would see from BBC, the kind of impeccable class act that would air on WTTW. John Madden is a more workmanlike filmmaker, flair for the dramatic but not tied to a distinct style. Most noticeably he directed Shakespeare in Love, although with a much better script than this one. Michelle Ashford seems to have worked mostly on television shows and miniseries, which accounts for the episodic nature. There is less tension in scenes that would seem more at home as a series.
Here we don’t get just one Mr. Darcy but two. Colin Firth plays Ewen and Matthew MacFadden plays Charles respectively, two colleagues who seems more like rivals from the start. If it is not obvious, a woman comes between them. Jean, played by actress Kelly Macdonald, is given the task of being their muse/love interest. Pity since she deserves better than what the script affords her. Julien Fellowes gave Kelly more to work with in Gosford Park. And sorry to those hoping, I have never seen Downton Abbey and didn’t plan on reviewing the new feature.
Mentions of Bletchley Circle and MI:5 pepper the narrative, playing like in-jokes for the initiated. In a scene where the crew puts together the body’s backstory, spy work becomes literary as they weave the fake officer’s story. Many mentions of writers within show espionage are just governmental fictions. Even one such bestselling writer Ian Fleming makes a brief but memorable appearance.
Subtlety is in short supply though as the film progresses. Our characters all converge to preordained places. History is just that; a story told over again. Even a third act twist fails to derail where we know this is heading. If anything, it only complicates the improbable love triangle at the center. And Thomas Newman’s score conveys both gravity and awe, explaining how to feel. His ethereal chords cut through the drama, reverent to the proceedings. It is hard to find when the deception ends and the truth begins.
All and all, it is not a horrible watch. For those interested in a slight bit of history mixed in with their British drama, you can do much worse. For those looking for a better take on this, may I suggest Enigma from 2001 starring Dougray Scott and Kate Winslet or The Imitation Game. Either way, you can’t go wrong for some happy viewing.
