Ewen Montagu
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May 11, 2022 · Powered by JustWatch. “Operation Mincemeat” looks like a proper British spy drama and for the most part, well, it is. It’s based on the true story of wartime daring and heroism, features a classy cast including Colin Firth and Matthew Macfadyen and has a director in John Madden (“ Shakespeare in Love ,” the “Best Exotic Marigold ...
Apr 16, 2022 · Colin Firth and Matthew Macfadyen in Netflix’s ‘Operation Mincemeat’: Film Review. Kelly Macdonald and Penelope Wilton also star in the true story of a World War II British intelligence unit ...
Operation Mincemeat is a stylish dive into history with a fantastic cast ready to show off their chops at any given moment. Jul 23, 2023. Operation Mincemeat is an incredibly thrilling watch if ...
- (115)
- John Madden
- PG-13
- Colin Firth
May 6, 2022 · The near-failure of Operation Mincemeat, which Madden and screenwriter Michelle Ashford render in tense, crisp detail, makes this story that much more remarkable, and this trim little movie, both ...
- 2 min
- Stephanie Zacharek
- Three stories, two Darcys, and one dead body.
- Between Colin Firth and Matthew Macfadyen, who's your preferred Mr. Darcy?
- Verdict
By Siddhant Adlakha
Posted: May 10, 2022 11:00 pm
Operation Mincemeat debuts on Netflix on May 11, 2022.
World War II drama Operation Mincemeat takes its title from a real-life ploy: In 1943, British Intelligence tried to convince the Nazi regime that they planned to invade Greece, rather than Sicily, by planting fake documents on the corpse of a tramp they dressed as a British Marine. One of the masterminds behind this plot happened to be Ian Fleming, who would go on to create the character known as 007, James Bond. The story of the operation practically writes itself — and yet, the movie by director John Madden ends up completely scattered. Its attention darts in a dozen directions, none of which feel remotely focused. The result isn’t so much a single film as it is a handful of ideas for wildly different ones, all smashed together with reckless abandon and a near-total lack of intrigue.
Despite its basis in real events, there’s an inherent absurdity to the plot, which Operation Mincemeat doesn’t seem to recognize. The folks behind its marketing certainly do — the trailer is cut as if it were a satire by Armando Iannucci — but the film has a dour, straight-faced tone that rarely matches the bizarre events on screen. Worse yet, its cast of characters (each played by stellar performers) seem to be playing stilted straight-men to no comedians in particular. They’re saddled with little by way of meaningful drama, despite constant gestures towards something important happening in their lives as they carve the bones of the operation.
This is, in part, because the production can’t seem to land on what it’s actually about. It opens with gloomy voiceover from Fleming (Johnny Flynn) about the nature of war and deception, but despite his recurring presence, Fleming himself is a mere observer, peeking in from the corners of a handful of scenes while hinting at which elements of the world around him will eventually form the basis for characters like M and Q. The film is not, however, about the creation of James Bond, despite using it as a framing device (complete with the sounds of a typewriter each time text appears on screen). It certainly doesn’t have enough charm or energy to feel at all Bond-like.
Colin Firth
Matthew Macfadyen
In order to make the corpse seem legitimate, Montagu, Cholmondeley, and Leslie begin spinning a deep backstory for the fictitious soldier. They name him Bill, and they name his fiancé Pam; “Bill” even carries a picture of Pam in his breast pocket, which happens to be a photo of Leslie. As the trio crafts Bill and Pam’s story in detail, they begin to pour more of themselves into the tale, living vicariously through the starry-eyed couple as they wrestle with the disappointments in their personal lives, resulting in scenes where Montagu and Leslie discuss the unreal romance as if they were speaking about themselves. Cholmondeley is left a jealous third party, leading to some pettiness, but this all plays out in its own corner of the film, seemingly disconnected from the overall plot, which chugs along from objective to objective as the operation draws near.
The film utterly fails to take advantage of the fact that its two leading men have played arguably the two hottest and most charming on-screen Mr. Darcys (not to mention the two wettest; who can forget Firth emerging from a lake in the 1995 Pride and Prejudice miniseries, or Macfadyen confessing in the rain in the 2004 Joe Wright movie?) It wastes its high-caliber cast and then some, placing Firth and Macdonald in tensionless scenes, in which sparks are implied through dialogue, but completely absent in the staging and blocking. Its supremely British will-they-won’t-they subplot, about two characters who seem to want to act on their feelings but are bound by societal ideals, is a drag when it comes at the cost of the wartime story, and it turns not only the otherwise remarkable Firth into an empty husk, but the equally brilliant Macdonald into a one-note bore.
Why introduce the shadow of a love triangle without having it materialize in the slightest?
“
Operation Mincemeat not only does wrong by its stellar cast, but by the absurd story on which it’s based, a World War II plot so much stranger than fiction that it feels perfect for a movie. However, the result is more like three different, disconnected movies smashed together — a comedy about a dead body, a romance with no chemistry, and a history...
- Siddhant Adlakha
May 13, 2022 · Step one was to find an anonymous corpse (some mincemeat, if you will).Step two was to invent a character for it — the fictitious Captain (Acting Major) William Martin — complete with a ...
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Full Review | Original Score: 2/4 | Dec 19, 2022. Dallas King Flick Feast. Operation Mincemeat does not go gently into that good night. The Argo of World War II is able to overcome the obstacles ...
