Film Review: Operation Mincemeat a war, spy and love story all in one

Matthew Macfadyen (left), as Charles Cholmondeley, Colin Firth as Ewen Montagu and Johnny Flynn as Ian Fleming in the new film, Operation Mincemeat. Photo / Supplied

Operation Mincemeat (M, 128 mins), in cinemas now
Directed by John Madden

There's something a bit off about watching a war story for entertainment while war rages in Ukraine, and yet a war story with a known outcome, where the good guys win, as in Operation Mincemeat, is somehow reassuring and the intrigue seems particularly relevant.

Operation Mincemeat is a war story, a spy story and a love story all in one.

Drawing audiences into the intrigue is the job of the director (John Madden), the writer (Ben Macintyre, who wrote the book on which the film is based, and Michelle Ashford who adapted it for the screen) and the actors.

Although the film is a bit wordy, you'll grip the arms of your seat at times, relate to the risks being taken by the characters and grieve for the dead man, a nonentity, whose body, given a fictitious backstory and fake documents to carry, lies at the centre of it all.

Truth is protected by a "bodyguard of lies". That line of Churchill's becomes part of the voice-over narrative by naval intelligence officer and embryonic world-famous writer Ian Fleming (Johnny Flynn).

Fleming is shown here as being a member of the Twenty Committee within MI5, charged with creating the deception that led to the Allies' invasion of Sicily and the beginning of the end of the Second World War.

Leading the team is Kings Counsel Ewen Montagu (Colin Firth). Firth as always is the one who is loyal, reliable, wise, sometimes quizzical, sometimes misunderstood but invariably right. He does all that in uniform this time, and the movie is worth seeing, just for what he does with the role of Montagu.

The action starts with Montagu saying to his team: "Let's start with the easy part and find ourselves a corpse." It's not just any corpse. This one has to be at the heart of what Montagu calls playing a humiliating trick on Hitler.

Grounded, bespectacled RAF Flight Lieutenant Charles Cholmondeley (Matthew Macfadyen), top public servant administrator Hester Leggett (Penelope Wilton) and ambitious young secretary Jean Leslie (Kelly Macdonald) all support Montagu. Opposing them is Admiral John Godfrey (Jason Isaacs) who doubts the plan will succeed, but Churchill (Simon Russell Beale) wants the plan implemented, now.

Those who are familiar with the actual Operation Mincemeat story, perhaps from having read Ewen Montagu's The Man Who Never Was (Lippincott, 1953) or seen the 1956 film of the same name (directed by Ronald Neame) will be surprised that married Montagu becomes attracted to Jean Leslie as they devise together a love interest for the corpse, along with a photograph and a love letter.

The effect of their intimacy on besotted Cholmondeley, and the attraction itself, are useful additions to the nonfiction version of the story.

Excellent acting and a good yarn, probably containing many elements of the truth, make Operation Mincemeat well worth seeing. Highly recommended.

• Movies are rated: Avoid, Recommended, Highly recommended and Must see.

Giveaway

The first person to bring an image or hardcopy of this review to Starlight Cinema in Taupō qualifies for a free ticket to Operation Mincemeat.