OPERATION MINCEMEAT

I'm not saying I didn't enjoy Operation Mincemeat but I won't be thinking about the film often anymore.

An intriguing true story goes a long way in keeping you engaged in an otherwise relatively bland and unsurprising movie in the quintessentially British Operation Mincemeat, as a cast filled with familiar faces recounts how Nazi Germany was bamboozled into thinking the 1943 allied Sicily invasion would be taking place in Greece.

That the plot reads like a James Bond novel is no coincidence - lan Fleming was one of the people behind the real-life ploy - but alas the filmmakers mostly fail to wring true suspense from the story. Part of the reason is that a lot of exposition is used throughout, diluting the natural flow of events, certainly in the movie's second half, which introduces too many new characters: necessary for the explanation of the scheme, but undercutting your involvement with the central cast.

John Madden's direction is decent but uneventful, a description that could also be used for all of the actors bar Kelly Macdonald and Matthew McFadyen, who hint at something more than meets the eye, as does Thomas Newman's fine music.

In short: I'm not saying I didn't enjoy Operation Mincemeat but I won't be thinking about the film often anymore.

release: 2022

director: John Madden

starring: Colin Firth, Matthew Macfadyen, Kelly Macdonald, Rufus Wright