By: Andrew Wing

Operation Mincemeat is a 2021 British war drama film directed by John Madden (Shakespeare in Love, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel). It is based upon Ben Macintyre’s book on the British Operation Mincemeat during the Second World War. The film stars Colin Firth (The King’s Speech, Mamma Mia!), Kelly Macdonald (Trainspotting, Boardwalk Empire), Matthew Macfadyen (Pride & Prejudice, Succession), Penelope Wilton (Shaun of the Dead, Match Point), Johnny Flynn (Lovesick, Stardust), and Jason Isaacs (Peter Pan, The Death of Stalin).

The film’s plot begins in 1943 during the war and follows two British intelligence officers (Firth and Macfadyen) who concoct Operation Mincemeat, wherein their plan to drop a corpse with false papers off the coast of Spain would fool Nazi spies into believing the Allied forces were planning to attack by way of Greece rather than Sicily.

The film had its world premiere in 2021 at the British Film Festival in Australia and was released in the United Kingdom on April 15, 2022, by Warner Bros. Pictures, before it was released on Netflix in North American and Latin American countries on May 11, 2022.

THE GOOD

Where do I start? Operation Mincemeat definitely snuck up on me, which is all the more surprising since I’d say I keep pretty good tabs on films that premiere at festivals, but I let this one fall by the wayside. Despite that, once I saw the trailer a week or two back and saw the two biggest names attached to the film in Firth and Macfadyen, I knew I was going to have to check it out once it hit Netflix. And that is just what I did. But did it match my expectations? Well, there is only one way to know that, so keep reading to find out!

I don’t know if I can say it matched my expectations, but Operation Mincemeat is a good film nonetheless. I went into this with fair expectations. I wasn’t expecting to be watching the next Saving Private Ryan or 1917 level of war film, and because of that, I enjoyed it. That said, the best part of this movie was hands down the story. The story in this movie rules so props to Michelle Ashford for writing an amazing script that is adapted from Ben Macintyre’s book on the British Operation. It is a legitimately great story and it was so bizarre that it reminded me a lot of the Best Picture-winning film Argo, which was also based on a true story. But yeah, it was super cool to hear about this operation that played a big role in the Allied forces winning the Second World War that I had never previously heard about.

Continuing with the story, I got to bring this up because we see it so much with war movies, but I liked that Operation Mincemeat served as a very realistic take on a very real operation. Sure, it takes some creative liberties like most of these films do, but not so much that I had to drop some points off for it. Honestly, I thought it was a more accurate representation of what spycraft truly is as it is more sitting at a desk going through things rather than halo jumping out of planes or jumping from building to building like Tom Cruise does as Ethan Hunt in the Mission Impossible film series that I absolutely love. Seriously though, nothing felt over-dramatized in Operation Mincemeat which I appreciated, and that did the film wonders in my opinion.

Now I already mentioned why I watched this movie in the first place, and that was because of the inclusion of both Colin Firth and Matthew Macfadyen. Firth is an Academy Award-winning actor thanks to his unbelievable performance in The King’s Speech, and Macfadyen is just a legend mostly thanks to portraying the character Tom Wambsgams in the HBO drama series Succession. But when it comes to their performances in Operation Mincemeat, I thought both of them were solid. It wasn’t the best performance of their careers or anything, but I liked how both the film itself and their performances showed the audiences that they weren’t these superheroes without flaws. Rather, they were these valuable people working during the Second World War who were at times unsure of themselves as they didn’t know if what they were doing was right, and both of them made that feel so real and that was the best thing they brought to this film.

They were the stars of the show, but there were also some good side performances here as well. It was weird because both Johnny Flynn and Simon Russell Beale were in this and I watched it directly after watching The Outfit (see my full review here), a movie I recently reviewed. They were both good in that, and they were both just as good here although they had much smaller roles. Beale played a great Winston Churchill and Flynn played the famous Ian Fleming, whose most notable work includes only writing the most famous spy novels of all time, the James Bond series. Seriously though, I liked how they included Ian Fleming in this, and while I knew he was responsible for writing James Bond books, I had no idea he was a British naval intelligence officer during the war, so them adding that small tidbit was sick.

Lastly, when it comes to Operation Mincemeat, I absolutely loved this movie on the technical side of things. I really liked the production value of it. It looked great thanks to Sebastian Blenkov’s cinematography and its look really put me into that specific setting of the 1940s. I also liked the way they presented the timeline too and it helped me never feel lost or confused in the complex story.

THE BAD

Alright, as I’ve said, Operation Mincemeat is a good film, but there are a couple of big problems with it in my opinion. First, it just felt so slow which is never what you want out of a war film. Granted, it’s not a typical war film as it takes place more on the spy side of things rather than being out on the battlefield, but still it just felt slowly paced. It also felt very dry at times, and I just really think it could’ve used a better director than John Madden. I’ll be honest, I have never been a big fan of the legendary director that is John Madden, and I still to this day cannot fathom how his most notable film Shakespeare in Love beat out Saving Private Ryan at the 71st Academy Awards, like WTF!

A bigger problem than that though was what really hurt the film a grand amount. And that would be the love triangle side plot. Yes, there was this side plot in the movie revolving around a love triangle between Firth, Macfadyen, and Macdonald’s characters, and it was honestly pointless. It took time away from the movie and it was just such a colossal waste of time. It definitely makes the pacing issues of the movie hurt worse, and I just don’t know why they decided to add it to the film. Also tied with that, I didn’t like Kelly Macdonald’s performance here, and with her being a talented actress, I found them to waste her talent with this one unfortunately.

THE VERDICT

Despite it being a bit dry and having a pointless side plot that bogged it down, Operation Mincemeat is still a respectable war drama film that tells the true story of the British Operation that played a crucial role in the Allies defeating the Axis powers in the Second World War. It is great technically speaking and it also features two awesome performances from big-time actors Colin Firth and Matthew Macfadyen in their lead roles.

For me, undeniably the best part of this film was the story. Yes, they took some creative liberties with it as all historical movies do, but they told the story in such a realistic way that helped it tremendously so I have to give credit to Michelle Ashford for writing a fantastic adapted screenplay.