This one has it all:
Taut suspense; superb direction and pacing; well-crafted characters played by a terrific cast; dry, mordant humor; and a jaw-dropping, war-era assignment that unfolds like Mission: Impossible without the gadgets, and is based on actual events related within Prime Minister Winston Churchill’s declassified memoirs, as detailed in Damien Lewis’ 2014 nonfiction book, Churchill’s Secret Warriors: The Explosive True Story of the Special Forces Desperadoes of WWII.
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| Gus March-Phillips (Henry Cavill, center) believes that he and his lads — clockwise from left, Geoffrey Appleyard (Alex Pettyfer), Anders Lassen (Alan Ritchson), Henry Hayes (Hero Fiennes Tiffin) and Freddy Alvarez (Henry Golding) — can seriously compromise Nazi U-boat activities. |
But enough truth remains to make this one of the most audacious covert operations ever to emerge from World War II.
England is in dire straits as this story begins, with London enduring nightly Nazi bombing raids, and American forces unable to cross the Atlantic due to the persistent threat of German U-boats (that latter detail stretching the truth a bit). Determined to break this impasse, Churchill (Rory Kinnear) authorizes an off-books assault — dubbed Operation Postmaster — proposed by Special Operations Executive Brigadier Colin Gubbins (Cary Elwes) and his personal assistant, Lt. Commander Ian Fleming (Freddie Fox).
(Yes, that Ian Fleming. He had quite the colorful career during the war.)
The details are to remain a secret between Churchill, Gubbins and Fleming: withheld, in particular, from War Office senior officers who favor trying to cut a deal with Hitler (!).
The plan: a clandestine black-ops mission — in other words, “ungentlemanly,” by the norms at that time — involving a small group of carefully selected mercenaries, tasked with destroying a crucial U-boat supply ship berthed in a neutral Spanish port on the volcanic island of Fernando Po.
Gubbins’ choice to head the mission: Major Gus March-Phillips (Henry Cavill), currently a guest of Her Majesty’s prison system.
(Well, naturally.)
What follows is a thrilling blend of The Dirty Dozen, The Magnificent Seven and, yes, the aforementioned Mission: Impossible. Once released and apprised of the assignment — when he isn’t cadging fine spirits, cigars and Fleming’s lighter (a cute bit) — March-Phillips assembles his team, each of whom would walk through fire on his behalf:
• Henry Hayes (Hero Fiennes Tiffin), an Irish navigations expert;
• Freddy “The Frogman” Alvarez (Henry Golding), a demolitions pro fully at home underwater; and
• Anders Lassen (Alan Ritchson, recognized from Amazon Prime’s “Reacher” TV series), an unstoppable killing machine, equally adept with knives and his beloved long-range bow and arrows, who has a charming habit of collecting the hearts of his Nazi victims.
Their first job: to rescue master planner Geoffrey Appleyard (Alex Pettyfer), March-Phillips’ right-hand man, currently a prisoner at an isolated Nazi encampment in the Canary Islands.
By this point, however, we’ve already seen — during a flash-forward prologue — how March-Phillips and the others deal with a Nazi naval contingent that stops their ocean-bound trawler.
March-Phillips further liaises with the gentlemanly Heron (Babs Olusanmokun), who wields influence and is highly respected in the colony at Fernando Po; and femme fatale Marjorie Stewart (Eiza González), who has ... well ... all manner of helpful talents.
Life at Fernando Po evokes the prickly dynamic at the heart of 1942’s Casablanca, with — in this case — German, Italian and Spanish forces co-existing uneasily. Spanish commander Capt. Binea (Henrique Zaga), aggrieved by how the Nazis are running roughshod over his beloved port, is mollified only when Heron periodically hands him a glass of “the good stuff” at the bar he runs.
Heron also arranges for further assistance from cigar-chomping local mercenary Kambili Kalu (Danny Sapani), the sort of good ol’ chap who’d just as soon cut a throat as smile.
Oh, and the über-villain of the piece: Nazi commandant Heinrich Luhr (Til Schweiger), “much worse than your average Nazi,” Heron warns Stewart.
All of these characters are played with the broadest strokes possible, but that simply magnifies the fun. The rapidly moving plot divides into self-contained assignments, either planned or the result of hiccups along the way (and quite a few of those impede things).
Cavill’s refined March-Phillips is veddy proper — in Gubbins and Fleming’s presence — but unruffled and calmly ruthless in the field, even when things go wrong. Olusanmokun’s Heron is disarmingly polite and gentile, while masks his abilities as a seasoned saboteur.
Ritchson is a force of nature. Lassen is unapologetically gleeful while methodically embracing and inflicting gory violence; his behavior is darkly hilarious, particularly when he mows down rows of adversaries with his trusty bow, yanking bloody arrows from each victim, in order to use them again.
Schweiger is the pluperfect Big Bad: a smiling sociopath who undoubtedly pulled the wings off flies as a lad, and now likely pulls the limbs off interrogation victims.
González makes Stewart voluptuous and just tart-tongued enough to intrigue and set the average man’s mind at ease ... more fool they. She also looks fantastic in the breathtaking gowns into which she’s poured by costume designer Loulou Bontemps.
(The actual Marjorie Stewart, best known as a 1950s film actress, married Gus March-Phillips shortly after the events of Operation Postmaster. There’s no indication that she had anything to do with that mission ... but who really knows?)
Composer Christopher Benstead supplies a militaristic, drum-beat score that ratchets up the intensity and excitement.
In all respects, this is a lot of fun (if quite violent). It deserves to do well.
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