Operation Mincemeat
WARNER BROSThe dark days of beating the dead horse of warfare spring back into life now that streaming services need to service big names with features that may nab them an awards nod or new audience. Operation Mincemeat certainly feels minced as it takes on tactics of warfare that featured during the 1940s, with that relatively loose and charmless British pride that takes over any historical accuracy or interest. It happened with Munich: The Edge of War, and so, naturally, it happens to the next star-studded cast-leading warfare-based project that’ll linger about as little on the mind as expected. A nothing film, but then there are places for such projects. Netflix appears to be the hub.
If Netflix is the hub, then they have room to gather themselves as a great torchbearer. Colin Firth may be the obvious choice, but he is also the uninspired one. That firm hand of British cinema dusted off and thrown into a personification of military importance as he was in 1917, Kursk and The Railway Man. There is nothing that much for Firth to change here. He is the stern and firm face, leading this time rather than tucked away in some corner of the trenches as he was in the Sam Mendes piece from a few years ago. At least Operation Mincemeat gives him something to do and ample supporting performers to aid him. Matthew Macfadyen and Kelly Macdonald all throw themselves into place in an ensemble that collects actors who have had a bad run of form as of late.
Johnny Flynn – from the rightly trashed Stardust – makes an appearance, and Jason Isaacs – whose latest works include a straight-to-VOD action feature with Mel Gibson by the name of Agent Game – features alongside Firth in the hopes his star power will rub off on them. Glistening away as he does, Firth is the natural centrepiece for Operation Mincemeat, a film that will keep no secrets, tell no lies, and bore those that engage with it. The uptick in warfare films has not seen an increase in quality. Fundamentally, the interchangeable characters and locations all offer a sour message of pride in patriotism and a winner-takes-all, tightening of the bootstraps attitude. Greyhound did that, but at least that had Tom Hanks clattering about on a boat. Midway tried too but its ensemble was stretched thin over blown-up boats and boring retellings of moments of history.
Operation Mincemeat falls for the Midway ploy. The implication that a brief pocket of history can be stretched into a feature film that charts the highs and lows, the attitudes of the time towards a daring project and the people behind it, is not as interesting as director John Madden makes out. This is not his first outing into the tales of the Second World War, and it is doubtful that this will be his last. If Captain Corelli's Mandolin cannot stop a man, nobody can. Firth and company will come out smelling of vague, patronising patriotism and not at all interested in the growth of the genre and the good that can come from challenging the flow. At least Macfadyen cracks through with great, emotive work. Operation Mincemeat is worth watching just for that.