Operation Mincemeat (2021) User Reviews

Good but unnecessary subplots

[PedroPires90 · 6/10 · 5 April 2022]

There is a better film here but some unnecessary side plots - oh well, that romantic thing took the focus so many times - are really distracting.

Some very good moments, great acting, very tense on its third act, but the first was confusing and full of exposition. Good enough but I was expecting better.

Totally unnecessary love plot

[Movie_Reviews · 6/10 · 16 May 2022]

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.

Operation brainfreeze

[prasadgollakota · 6/10 · 19 April 2022]

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.

Perfectly fine

[ethanbresnett · 6/10 · 6 April 2022]

Operation Mincemeat is a film with very few bells and whistles.

It has an interesting story to tell, and it tells it well enough, however unnecessary romantic subplots make the whole thing 20 minutes too long.

I think the pacing is a little off as they place the focus too much on the establishment of the plan and not enough on how it pans out.

The performances are all fine. Nothing overly flashy. There is a good feel to the film, capturing the period well.

Overall a perfectly decent film, worth watching to learn about a remarkable and crucial military operation, but there's nothing particularly remarkable about the filmmaking.

A really great story gone bad by a stupid "love" story

[thejdrage · 7/10 · 16 May 2022]

OMG! Please. Really. This is one of the most incredible stories out of WWII and "they" had to toss in a love story that took away so much from the real story, it was sad.

And yes, it is FAR too long. OMG, I wanted to take a nap!

Having those two officers acting like high school jocks over The Girl was pathetic. And sad. What a waste of one hella story.

It is amazing what people can come up with they have to, though, isn't it!?

Make sure to watch the credits and see the real photographs of the real people!!

Operation "everyone likes Kelly Macdonald"

[stevelovell · 7/10 · 5 April 2022]

It was enjoyable enough but I really wanted to enjoy this more than I did.

It seemed to unnecessarily labour several male characters fancying Kelly Macdonald's character. All the time taken up on this tiresome sub-plot would have been better spent on some of the main story. Also, a triple-agent character giving a hand job to someone just seemed unlikely and out of place.

One of several nods to James Bond was an unfeasibly high-powered buzzsaw watch as a throwaway gag (because of Ian Fleming being a character) was corny and distracting.

I somehow expected it would be more engaging, gritty and revealing than the 1956 film, but it seemed pretty typical and formulaic like many modern British WWII themed films with foiled wartime romances crow-barred in.

There are some great actors in the film but some of them seem to be overused in other similar roles the same era. It even seemed a little like a mini "Death of Stalin" reunion for Jason Isaacs and Simon Russell Beale.

Perhaps I'm being too unkind to the film, but I was looking forward to it and fell a little short of expectations.

An interesting film that has much more potential

[doneill-69951 · 6/10 · 6 April 2022]

A likeable film however I can't help but feel for the potential that it missed out on. The actors fulfilled their roles and we were able to get to know the characters.

The film often digressed from the main theme and and focused on far less relevant sub plots. Contrasting this some more interesting scenes felt to be cut short.

The film is overall above par, however I feel this could have been so much more.

Great WW2 drama

[masonsaul · 8/10 · 20 April 2022]

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.

An impressive cast, solid film.

[Sleepin_Dragon · 7/10 · 12 February 2023]

A military officer hatches a daring plan to dupe The Nazis into recovering what they believe is a fallen officer, in possession of vital documents, when in Reality it's a corpse, and a massive deception.

I did wonder how they were going to tell the story, and perhaps the fair answer, is slowly. It's definitely an enjoyable film, but it perhaps lacks a little sharpness, a little dramatic edge, but the story is fascinating, and here we see where the idea came from, including the finite details such as the corpse and cover story, and the gentle pushes that were needed in Spain.

I think the best thing about this film has to be the acting, the performances are excellent, subtle, understated and convincing, you couldn't put a bit between the likes of Colin Firth, Matthew Macfadyen and Kelly Macdonald, I thought Penelope Wilton was excellent.

Very nicely produced, the visuals were well and truly on point, some of the military scenes looked terrific.

It perhaps wasn't as exciting as I'd hope for, but overall, I enjoyed it.

7/10.

A truly great film of the quiet heroes of the Second World War

[Joxerlives · 9/10 · 23 April 2022]

Truly excellent, the story of how deception played such a key part in the Allies victory. Uniformly terrific performances and a great plot, demonstrating the "Wilderness of mirrors" of intelligence work, you can never really be sure of what is real and what is not and have to continually balance one risk against another. The ruthlessness of when the corpse's sister shows up and you have to put your nobler feelings aside because what you're doing is so much more important than her grief at her brother's death, that if you don't carry on there will be thousands of more grieving siblings to mourn for. The heart-stopping scene where the German agent confronts the heroine and you have to consider whether or not to continue, not knowing if there really is an anti-Hitler faction in German intelligence or whether this is all a bluff to make her spill her guts (the fact that he leaves her alive suggests the former). The nagging fear of Communist infiltration which turn out to be 100% true with Philby, Burgess and co. The references to the true inspiration for the plot, ex-British Intelligence chief Basil Thomson (one of the prime architects of the IRA's defeat) and his story "The Milner's Hat'. In truth the only reason I don't give it 10 out of 10 is that it somewhat exaggerates the impact of the scheme, had it not worked casualties in Sicily would have been far greater but it certainly wouldn't have affected the course of the war and there was no chance of a German invasion of Britain by 1943. But all told a classic spy story that I would recommend to anyone.

Decent but could have been better

[pneary-58368 · 7/10 · 15 April 2022]

I was really looking forward to this film because it's based on the book of the same name by Ben Macintyre, which was brilliant.

It starts off very strong, setting the scene, as in wartime Britain and at what point of the war it is, and highlighting the importance of the mission that the main characters will do.

Unfortunately as other reviewers have said the main plot of the movie is not the focus at times and instead it focuses on, frankly, irritating sub-plots. The strength of the film is the intelligence work that the characters do and that should have been the focus.

The acting was great. I particularly liked, Jason Isaacs as John Godfrey a naval commander and Simon Russel Beale as Winston Churchill.

Overall, worth watching, especially if you normally like World War Two dramas or spy stories, but potentially could have been better I think.

Operation hamburger patty

[thinkMovies · 4/10 · 11 May 2022]

The main difference between The Man Who Never Was (1956) and this, Operation Mincemeat (2021), is that filmmakers seem to consider 21st century audiences dumb who need everything explained slowly to them. Or, perhaps the filmmakers are such simpletons as they presume their audience to be. Also, it seems that these days the facts, as intriguing as they may be, are not considered enough to make an interesting movie and therefore unnecessary embellishments with invented lies and subplots are deemed a must.

The only thing that keeps this movie half-afloat is the regal presence of Colin Firth. The rest is total BS, mostly invented to make the movie drag on for 25 minutes longer than the original.

The 1956 original was handicapped by the fact that the facts were still classified and yet they created a brilliantly paced and presented narrative of as close to the truth as they could get. This 2021 outing had all the facts, declassified since 1996, but felt the need to invent fairytales to embellish it with.

Is this a good movie to watch if one does not care about the facts it claims to depict? Run-of-the-mill formula. Nothing special. No memorable moments. Formulaic standard recipe doing an injustice to one of the greatest successes in history involving the deception of the enemy. Cringeworthy moments in the narrative. Not one moment that rouses an emotional response from the viewer.

Fun with flaws

[sjo-15 · 6/10 · 2 May 2022]

Macfayden and Firth are good. Assured performances.

Hello to Jason Isaacs. Sinister and unlikable!

Kelly McDonald's accent isn't great.

Amazing story. Quite a bit of humour. Mostly enjoyable.

The love story dilutes things and gets in the way. Seems unnecessary. There is enough of a human angle without it.

We need a corpse

[Calicodreamin · 6/10 · 12 May 2022]

Well this is one of the wilder ploys of the WWII allied intelligence. It's quite clever and definitely out there. The storyline flowed easily though it was a bit slow at times. Acting gets top marks.

Underwhelming

[osuopie · 6/10 · 15 May 2022]

Remake of the 1956 film "The Man who never Was" which is a gripping thriller of a Film. Star power of this "Mincemeat" can't carry the weight of a great military plot poorly retold in this film. Skip this and watch the original, you win be disappointed.

Not comparable to early production

[stewartannand · 6/10 · 13 May 2022]

Nothing like the earlier version, The Man Who Never Was, this version has too much fluff The first version was fast moving and much more entertaining with less characters, this had extraneous side stories, the operation is the main story, this was a Masterpiece Theater type production and a bit of a bore.

One of the most exciting and consequential covert operations in WWII history.

[JohnDeSando · 13 May 2022]

Operation Mincemeat is not an animation, but a straightforward, almost romantic depiction of a WWII covert operation, the Allied invasion of Sicily in 1943, that began the downfall of Adolph Hitler. Churchill, having chased Rommel from N. Africa, now could pick Sicily or Greece to invade, and the Germans were fooled into thinking it would be Greece. By the way, that little plot saved tens of thousands of lives along the way.

While bombs and intrigues are war's reality, this enjoyable Netflix docudrama is all about deception, mainly the Allies deceiving, through the use of a dead body, the Nazis into thinking they were invading Europe through Greece. The "hidden war" is the clandestine actions of a small British unit dedicated to the biggest case of fake news in WWII.

Operation Mincemeat, by virtue of its name, could have appeared silly to serious Nazi operatives, but it did fool them. The film avoids the German point of view while it concentrates on the challenges of faking a real body, stashing real documents on him that wouldn't decay in sea water, and dropping him in a place where it would be easily found.

These intriguing choices are equaled by the challenges facing the Brits such as who in the chain of command should know about Operation Mincemeat, besides Churchill, figuring that spies are working among them. Perhaps just as domestically dangerous is the triangle developing between top dog, Ewen Montagu (Colin Firth), and Charles Cholmondeley (Matthew Macfadyen), and new recruit, Jean Leslie (Kelly Macdonald). That soap opera bogs the film down when so many nuts and bolts of such a delicate operation could be attended to. Yet, war exists on all levels, even the personal.

Along the way, one narrator, Ian Fleming (a jaunty Johnny Flynn), has some pre-James Bond wry comments about the proceedings. He does presage Bond by calling two fellow conspirators "Q" and "M." He is one of several writers to mine the heroics for his fiction. A nice touch for those of us who revere Fleming and Bond.

Operation Mincemeat is a detailed exposition of one of history's greatest deceptions. A quiet Netflix night with cognac and chips is just the ticket to marvel at the ingenuity of the Brits and their gambling Prime Minister. Add a super cast, spot-on writing, and a director who has depicted romance and deception and you will have your own victory at home.

A Great British Movie

[martimusross · 9/10 · 5 April 2022]

Operation Mincemeat

Watched this at the Cineworld Unlimited screening and it was a big surprise. We have now had, quite unbelievably, three brilliant British movies in a row, Duke, Phantom of the Open and now this.

Basically the movie showed us a secret spy type mission in WW2 that attempted to dupe the Nazis into believing a military lie and make a strategic mistake. The movie moved with ease from comedy to tragedy and back again with some very serious issues explored with a extraordinarily light touch.

The screenplay was simply incredible with great narrative drive and believable characters.

I shouldn't say it but it was refreshing that Churchill was portrayed as a corpulent caucasian and we didn't spend 20 minutes trying to guess who this was meant to be, clearly the woke diversity police weren't allowed to racially rinse or gender wash anyone in this movie. It was therefore all surprisingly realistic.

The direction was masterful and breathed in all the right places, the actors shone throughout, it was totally an ensemble piece. For a long movie it flew by, I was gripped, even though in reality it was all a very dry subject.

I'm giving this a 9 outta 10 for great entertainment, it wasn't perfect by all means and the romantic elements were all a bit stilted but I'm just being picky!

Good true story, average fictional subplots.

[bbosma-24403 · 6/10 · 8 December 2022]

The first time this true story was brought to the screen, back in the 1950s, it was called The Man Who Never Was. This version could have been subtitled the rivalry, romance and subplots that never were. Look, it's quite a pleasant movie with a good cast doing quite well with a fairly mundane script. Apparently someone decided that a true ripping yarn needed to be embellished with a touch of soap. That's disappointing, because it really is a great story. And today's screenwriters and producers had a big advantage over the writers and producers of the original movie - much of the detail of the original Operation Mincemeat was still kept secret, including the name and circumstances of the body used for the operation. So worth watching, but could have been better.

Some great performances a fascinating story

[tm-sheehan · 8/10 · 12 May 2022]

My Review - Operation Mincemeat My Rating 8/10

I thought this was a very impressive and entertaining film based on actual events that occurred in 1943 during World War 11.

Operation Mincemeat was a successful British deception operation of the Second World War to disguise the 1943 Allied invasion of Sicily. Two members of British intelligence obtained the body of Glyndwr Michael, a tramp who died from eating rat poison, dressed him as an officer of the Royal Marines and placed personal items on him identifying him as the fictitious Captain (Acting Major) William Martin.

The story was previously filmed in 1956 and titled The Man That Never Was starring Clifton Webb ,Gloria Grahame and Robert Fleming and based on the story of the same name written by the main character Ewan Montagu played so effectively in this version by Colin Firth.

Ewen Edward Samuel Montagu CBE QC DL was a British judge, Naval intelligence officer and author who worked on the operation during his time in Naval Intelligence at The British Admiralty.

In 1953 Ewan Montagu wrote his account of Operation Mincemeat however this 2022 version of the story is based upon Ben Macintyre's book on titled Operation Mincemeat with an excellent screenplay by Michelle Ashford .

The film stars Colin Firth, Kelly Macdonald, Matthew Macfadyen, Penelope Wilton, Johnny Flynn, and Jason Isaacs.

War stories are not my favourite movie genre but the character development and the performances in this film especially by Colin Firth as Ewan Montagu are outstanding. As are Matthew Macfadyen as Charles Cholmandeley and Kelly MacDonald as Jean Leslie . These three complex lonely characters that are totally dedicated to serving their country together form an emotional triangle .

Matthew Macfadyen in one of his best roles in a while is very impressive as the co instigator of the Operation who forms a great working friendship with Ewan Montagu until circumstances change and jealousy and mistrust set in.

Johnny Flynn plays Ian Fleming who of course later created James Bond . He also has a good part in the movie and even divulges who his inspiration was for James Bond's cantankerous boss at MI5 . Ian Fleming was actually part of Operation Mincemeat in his role as assistant to Britain's director of Naval Intelligence.

Of course there's some War Action in this movie but for me it was the intrigue and complexity of the characters that impressed me equally as much as the complex Operation Mincemeat itself.

I suspect this is exactly what Director John Madden and screen writer Michelle Ashford intended as the story itself is so well known as well as the outcome of one of the most crucial turning points in World War 11.

I couldn't help thinking of the stories of bravery and War intelligence happening today in this tragic first major War of the 21st Century in Ukraine that no doubt will take the form of stories and the movies of years to come .

If Nothing Changes Nothing Changes .......

Disappointing

[robdrummond · 4/10 · 15 April 2022]

I was so looking forward to this for the 2 years since i saw them starting filming in 2020 around Whitehall

Huge chunks of this film were completely boring and totally unnecessary and these were the stultifying love relationships that took over the plot and in some ways took precedence over the whole point of the film.

Ben Mackintires original book was miles away from this effort which - despite the cast - was as boring as hell and could have easily been the thrilling film it should have been leaving out 75% of the personal stories of the characters.

The film focussed on the wrong things.

What a shame.

'The Imitation Game' set the standard...

[sjspode · 7/10 · 18 April 2022]

... for this type of film; but unfortunately Operation Mincemeat failed to deliver in a similar way.

Interesting story but as others have said far too much attention to the romantic subplot/ simmering jealousy, which at one point looked likely to derail everything.

So in conclusion, a subpar effort.

Subpar adaption of great event and great book. Very American telling of a British

[random-70778 · 11 May 2022]

Mincemeat the "Lifetime Channel" soap opera? That is what I feel like I just watched. The female character is shoehorned in in a way that feels utterly artificial and forced. The subplots that result make this film a slog to get through.

Also, as I was watching this I felt that this was a very American telling of a British story. When the film was over I took a look at credits, and sure enough, the screenplay writer was American woman.

4/10.

Operation mediocrity

[comps-784-38265 · 6/10 · 17 September 2022]

Another film that looks good superficially, it certainly has the cast to deliver a good film. But very quickly reveals it's a facade for a mediocre offering.

The problem is, it doesn't know which story it is telling, the story jumps about as a hotch potch of sub stories and you don't really get which is the main plot line - as there isn't one.

I found the actor portraying Churchill made no attempt to immitate a well known personaility. Gary Oldman set the bar very high in 'Darkest Hour' and this chap doesn't even come close to his portrayal.

Because the film lacks a real plot you cannot invest in any of the characters which are more caricatures.

There are silly historical inaccuracies. I.e. They think the audience are stupid (or perhaps the writers were too lazy to research the subject/era)

All in all dissappointing and frankly boring.

Ironically you are left with a nagging feeling this should have been a good film, perhaps because of Colin Firth in the lead role and visually the film is similar to 'The Kings Speech' (which was a good film and did have a good story)

I have to say the 1956 film "The man who never was" told the story far better and was a lot more historically accurate and authentic.

Good but not as good as the original.

[peteingram · 6/10 · 21 May 2022]

A good movie and a good plot based on a true story. However I saw the original of this as The Man Who Never Was a long time ago. Look it up on imdb

Quite frankly I prefer the original in spite of the illustrious cast and good production.