Movie review: Operation Mincemeat

Colin Firth starts in the historical war drama Operation Mincemeat. In cinemas now.

The ground-level realities of military intelligence operations make fine fodder for this entertaining true story behind a huge gambit undertaken by the British during World War II.

In 1943, the Allies need Hitler to think they are planning to invade Germany-occupied Europe via Greece, as opposed to the obvious target, Sicily, so he'd move his reinforcements away and allow the Allied troops easier access. A plot is hatched to drop a dead body (in a British uniform) off the coast of Spain with the hope that the Nazi-aligned spy network there gets its hands on the corpse and reads the attached (falsified) letters, indicating a Greek invasion.

Prime Minister Winston Churchill approves the plan, and intelligence officers Ewen Montagu (Colin Firth) and Charles Cholmondeley (Matthew Macfadyen) put together a small team to execute it. The process of finding a suitable body and constructing an identity for it (in order to authenticate the ruse) is quite elaborate, and there are various hoops to jump through and setbacks along the way.

Montagu approaches the task of creating an identity for the fake officer with gusto, teaming up with promoted secretary Jean Leslie (Kelly McDonald) to create a romantic back story for the man and his sweetie that spills over into real life, creating problems with Cholmondeley.

There's also the delicate, double-bluff nature of intelligence gathering and dissemination where getting the enemy to believe your lies is just as tricky as trying to prevent them from learning your truths.

Shot by director John Madden (Shakespeare In Love) with a warm, golden hue that emphasises the nostalgia for British wartime heroism, Operation Mincemeat is at its most entertaining when depicting the military bureaucracy surrounding such endeavours. Watching upper-crust Brits getting stuff done with a minimum amount of fuss is always a good time.

Jason Issacs is clearly having fun playing a stern admiral and Simon Russell Beale makes an impact as Churchill in several scenes. This is all the more impressive considering how often we've seen that figure on screen lately.

But it's the interplay between Firth and Macfadyen (who've both played Mr Darcy to great acclaim) that the film successfully hangs on. Firth's effortless dignity bounces nicely off Macfadyen's more prickly character, who's got something to prove.

Johnny Flynn also shows up as a young intelligence officer Ian Fleming, who played a part in the creation of Operation Mincemeat, and who would of course go on to create the character of James Bond. He is often seen typing away, and there's an amusing running joke about Cholmondeley's exasperation with how everyone in military intelligence is writing a novel.

The grand deception at the film's centre can't help but have particular resonance in a time of information warfare, and it's remarkable to learn how so much relied on the secret actions of a few dedicated civil servants.

Cast: Kelly Macdonald, Colin Firth, Matthew Macfadyen
Director: John Madden
Running time: 128 minutes
Rating: M (Offensive language)
Verdict: Great performances elevates a solid espionage drama.