Operation Mincemeat
The blend in this mincemeat could have been better, but in the end it’s perfectly edible.
In the midst of WWII, the British are intent on landing their forces in Sicily; but the Germans anticipate them. Churchill is determined to deceive the Germans, and convince them that the British intend instead to land in Greece. Two intelligence officers, Ewen Montagu (Colin Firth) and Charles Cholmondeley (Matthew Macfadyen), with the able assistance of Jean Leslie (Kelly Macdonald), devise an out-there plan to do so and term it Operation Mincemeat. With tens of thousands of lives on the chopping block, and amidst a sea of endless problems, bad luck and happenstance, the greatest deception of the war hangs in the balance.
Directed by John Madden, Operation Mincemeat is a relatively placid historical thriller that is at its best when it’s focused on the facts. The inherent tale on display here, one of the British taking a mammoth risk, and washing a dead body (for whom they had created a whole identity) with fake information about where they would land up on Spanish shores, and ensuring that the Germans got access to that information, is almost too fantastic to believe. The fact that Ian Fleming himself (Johnny Flynn) was involved (or architected, depending on who you ask) the scheme himself, is also ruthlessly intriguing. When Operation Mincemeat is focussed on these elements, and on how they developed such a comprehensive backstory for their character, it absolutely is an intriguing and engaging piece of history.
The issues with the film stem largely from the painted-on-thick layer of romance, love triangles and personal drama. Charles is keen on Jean, but Jean is keen on Ewen, who is also keen on Jean but who has a wife and children in the US. Ewen’s brother Ivor (Mark Gatiss), is a communist sympathizer, and Admiral John Godfrey suspects Ewen may be too, so he has Charles spy on him. It’s all a bit much, and there’s too much time devoted to these characters, and too little spent developing drama and intrigue that would compel us to them, rather than repel us from them.
Ultimately, that deals quite a blow to the film, and your opinion on the piece overall will depend on how much you can stomach that aspect of it. There’s certainly a lot to like here, and the core story and the performances are good (visually, it’s also quite well done). If you can overlook the pesky romantic subplots, as I could, you’ll probably like this film as much as we did (that being around the 3 star mark). If you can’t, as my guest couldn’t, you’ll probably like it much less.
