Operation Mincemeat

The part of the film dealing with the actual operation is fine with good acting and a gripping narrative. Even when one knows historically that the landing in Sicily was a success in the film it still is a breathless moment when everyone is waiting for the news and all the tremendous effort leading up to that moment is effectively conveyed by the director. Unfortunately the movie is marred by the redundant romantic sub-plot which seems like it's from another film and makes the film longer than necessary. The addition of the corpse's fictional sister is also a mistake. It doesn't add anything apart from cheap pathos. The scriptwriter made what could have been a great film into a curate's egg. Disappointing.

The production team clearly had one too many during the making of this. Why anyone would add fiction to spoil a fascinating historical tale is beyond me. Lets recap -- the Brits decieved Hitler through brilliant trickery into diverting his troops, thereby losing ground to the allies, and ultimately losing the war. If this was pure fiction it would be unbelievable or better told with Marvel characters or Tarantino. However, it wasnt fiction!! So why litter the core story with contrived subplots? The relationship between Montague and Jean was nonsense. Unrealistic. Irrelevant. Was it perhaps because someone promised Colin it was a love story to get him involved? Add to this, whilst the script and dialogue was largely good, at times it was awful. These were brainfreeze moments. Casting and performances were generally good, especially Matthew M and Penelope Wilton. I did enjoy the movie but mainly because of the sheer fascination with the story, rather than the execution of this version of the story.

So disappointed, such an exciting true story, made so infinitely boring. I generally love this era and type of film and I wonder how they succeeded in ruining it, and who thought it was watchable. Waste.

The production team clearly had an one too many during the making of this. Why anyone would add fiction to spoil a fascinating historical tale is beyond me. Lets recap -- the Brits decieved Hitler through brilliant trickery into diverting his troops, thereby losing ground to the allies, and ultimately losing the war. If this was pure fiction it would be unbelievable or better told with Marvel characters or Tarantino. However, it wasnt fiction!! So why litter the core story with contrived subplots? The relationship between Montague and Jean was nonsense. Unrealistic. Irrelevant. Was it perhaps because someone promised Colin it was a love story to get him involved? Add to this, whilst the script and dialogue was largely good, at times it was awful. These were brainfreeze moments. Casting and performances were generally good, especially Matthew M and Penelope Wilton. I did enjoy the movie but mainly because of the sheer fascination with the story, rather than the execution of this version of the story.

It's surprisingly light-hearted at times despite the subject matter, which can be a bit too much but Operation Mincemeat is still a great WW2 drama that's witty, fun and suitably suspenseful with a fascinating fact based story to explore. Colin Firth gives a great lead performance in a role that plays squarely to his strengths and is supported by Matthew Macfadyen who is successfully able to go toe to toe with Firth in the more dramatic moments. Kelly Macdonald and Penelope Wilton are also great, bringing genuine heart and warmth to the proceedings. John Madden's direction is excellent, establishing an engaging pace early on and maintaining it throughout helped by some effective cross cutting. The music by Thomas Newman is really good, tense, energetic and triumphant.

The idea for the film is good and solid. However, it is diluted to the absurd with some weird menage a trois love plat that, if removed, would shorten the movie with a much needed half an hour.