ONE LIFE : Tuesday 2nd January 2024.

I saw the PG Rated 'ONE LIFE' earlier this week, and this British biographical drama film is Directed by James Hawes in his feature film debut, although he has been Directing both single and multiple episodes of TV series for a number of years taking in the likes of 'Doctor Who', 'Merlin', 'Penny Dreadful', 'Black Mirror', 'The Alienist', 'Snowpiercer' and 'Slow Horses' most recently. This film is based on the book 'If It’s Not Impossible…The Life of Sir Nicholas Winton' by Barbara Winton, and it had its World Premiere screening at the Toronto International Film Festival on 9th September last year, was released in the UK on 1st January, and has garnered generally favourable critical reviews.

The film opens up in the suburbs of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England in 1987 with an ageing Nicholas Winton (Anthony Hopkins) pulling up to his house in h car and walking into his home with two handfuls of charity collection boxes, which he empties on the kitchen bench and begins sorting and counting the coin donations. He is interrupted by his wife Grete (Lena Olin) who chastises him for the amount of storage boxes, files and paraphernalia he has stacked up in the lounge room and his home office. She once again reminds him that after fifty years it is time he has a clean out and a de-clutter, especially considering that his pregnant daughter is expected home for Christmas and that they'll need the room. In his office, she pulls on a drawer of his desk to reveal a leather briefcase with the initials T.C. in faded gold lettering, saying that it is about time too that he did something about that, to which he promptly closes the drawer.

We then flashback to 1938 and a young Nicholas Winton (Johnny Flynn) is working as a stockbroker in London, but is wracked by a sense of duty to lend whatever support and aid he can to the groups of largely Jewish children in the recently Nazi occupied Czechoslovakia, just before the beginning of WWII. He visits Prague for a week, having been allowed time off work to do so, to see first hand the extent of the task he has vowed to undertake. There he meets Trevor Chadwick (Alex Sharp), Martin Blake (Ziggy Heath) and Doreen Warriner (Romola Garai) of the British Committee for Refugees from Czechoslovakia. Shocked by the what he witnessed in Prague in the makeshift camps housing countless displaced men, women and children, he telegrams his office to say he needs more time. 

Winton then calls his mother Babi Winton (Helena Bonham Carter) in London to enlist her assistance in lobbying the House of Commons to approve the entry of child refugees. Eventually, the House agrees upon the provision that younger than 17 years of age are permitted entry, provided they had a place to stay, a warranty of £50 was deposited per person for their eventual return to their own country, plus a handful of other conditions, and that all the necessary accompanying paperwork was in order. 

Back in 1987 and Grete is off on a short break to Europe, leaving Nicholas at home to begin the arduous task of clearing and de-cluttering their lounge room and study, which he does successfully, by burning many of the storage boxes in his back garden, much to Grete's very pleasant surprise when she arrives back home. On his desk rests the leather briefcase which it is revealed contains a scrapbook containing photographs and lists of the children, including their parents' names and the names and addresses of the families that took them in. Nicholas has lunch with Martin Blake (Jonathan Pryce) who says that the scrapbook is testimony to his determination in bringing back so many children and that he has a connection with Robert Maxwell who would be very interested in sighting it. And so Nicholas receives a call from Elisabeth Maxwell (Marthe Keller), a Holocaust researcher and wife of media magnate Robert Maxwell, and is stunned to learn that Winton was involved in the rescue and relocation of 669 children from Nazi occupied Czechoslovakia in 1938/39. 

Back in early 1939 Winton is in London with Babi waiting track side for the arrival of trainloads of children over the course of several months with eight trains successfully making the journey across to London, and being successfully relocated with foster parents. However, the ninth train bringing 250 children across was scheduled to leave Prague on 1st September 1939, but was unable to depart, with Hitler's invasion of Poland on the same day the Second World War had begun. What became of those 250 children remains unknown but in all likelihood they perished in the Nazi concentration camps. 

Thanks to Robert Maxwell, the wider world found out about his work in February 1988 during an episode of the BBC television programme 'That's Life!' when he was invited as a member of the audience. At one point, Winton's scrapbook was shown and his achievements were explained. The host of the programme, Esther Rantzen (Samantha Spiro), introduced Winton to children he had helped to rescue live on air. 

In a follow-up programme of 'That's Life!' a week later at which Winton was again in the audience with his wife by his side this time, Rantzen asked whether anybody in the audience was among the children who owed their lives to Winton, and if so, to stand. At which, the entire audience rose to its feet surrounding Winton and applauded, with those closest embracing him. 

In a closing scene Nicholas and Grete are seen entertaining a family of a now adult rescued child and her family including several grandchildren at their home as they all make their way down to his swimming pool. In the closing credits actual footage of those now adult refugees is seen, together with Winton who in the 1983 Birthday Honours, was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE), and in the 2003 New Year Honours, he was knighted for services to humanity, in recognition of his work on the Czech Kindertransport. He died in 2015 at the age of 106.

With 'One Life' here first time feature film Director James Hawes has delivered us a film that will resonate with WWII historians and those being introduced to the story of Nicholas Winton for the first time. This story of how a small group of people made such an impactful difference to the lives of 669 children, and how Winton only gained recognition for his efforts some fifty years after the fact is a story that needed to be told, and in weaving the timelines between 1938/39 and 1987/88 Director Hawes has eeked out a thought provoking and emotional biographical drama, paired with strong performances from Hopkins, Bonham Carter and Flynn that is unlikely to leave barely a dry eye in the house by the time the end credits roll.

'One Life' merits four claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a possible five claps.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

OPERATION MINCEMEAT : Tuesday 17th May 2022.

I saw 'OPERATION MINCEMEAT' at my local multiplex earlier this week and this M Rated British WWII drama film is Directed by John Madden whose previous film making credits include 'Mrs. Brown' in 1997, 'Shakespeare in Love' in 1998, 'Captain Corelli's Mandolin' in 2001, 'Proof' in 2005, 'The Debt' in 2010, and 'The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel' in 2012 and its sequel 'The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel' in 2015. This film is based on the book 'Operation Mincemeat : The True Spy Story that Changed the Course of World War II' by Ben Macintyre. This is the second feature film about the operation, following the 1956 film 'The Man Who Never Was' based on Ewen Montagu's book of the same name. This film saw its World Premier screening at the British Film Festival in Australia in November 2021 before its release in the UK in mid-April, and in the US (on Netflix) and here in Australia from last week, has so far grossed US$10.5M and has garnered generally favourable reviews. 

In April 1943 the UK is deeply rooted in WWII. Lieutenant Commander Ewen Montagu (Colin Firth) remains in England while his wife Iris (Hattie Morahan) and their two children leave for the relative safety of the United States. Ewen is a Jewish lawyer who is fearful that if they remain and Germany gains the upper hand and invades England, then his family will be persecuted. He elects however, to stay when he is appointed to the Twenty Committee (a WWII counter espionage and deception organisation of the British Security Service). His trusted secretary and good friend of Iris, Hester Leggett (Penelope Wilton) sticks by him.

Meanwhile, Winston Churchill (Simon Russell Beale) has made a commitment to the United States that her Allies will invade Sicily by July of that year in order to push northward through Italy and onward into Europe. Sicily though is considered an obvious target and is likely to be heavily defended by the German united armed forces. Admiral John Godfrey (Jason Issacs) informs the Twenty Committee that Britain must trick Nazi Germany into believing the Allies will invade Greece and Sardinia. Charles Cholmondeley (Matthew Macfadyen) proposes an operation from the Trout Memo (a document comparing deception of an enemy in wartime with fly fishing), which would involve a corpse carrying false secrets and washing ashore. Despite Godfrey's serious reservations, he gives Montagu and Cholmondeley permission to plan the operation with Lieutenant Commander Ian Fleming (Johnny Flynn).

The team set up an office under the name of Operation Mincemeat. As planning progresses Montagu and Cholmondeley finally obtain the body of a vagrant named Glyndwr Michael (Lorne MacFadyen), who died by suicidal poisoning. Bentley Purchase (Paul Ritter) was the physician who sourced the body of Michael, and helped preserve and prepare the corpse for the rouse. The team gives Michael the fake identity of Major William Martin, complete with a very detailed backstory, ID photos, and an engagement. A widowed secretary in the office, Jean Leslie (Kelly Macdonald), offers a photo of herself to serve as the fake fiancee under the name of Pam. Cholmondeley has a crush on Jean, but soon comes to realise that Montagu and Jean share a romantic connection which results in Cholmondeley becoming jealous and lashing out from time to time at Montagu.

Godfrey suspects that Montagu's younger brother, Ivor (Mark Gatiss), is in fact a Russian spy. He coerces Cholmondeley to spy on Montagu and, in return for which, Godfrey will locate and return the remains of Cholmondeley's brother, who was killed in action in Chittagong, Bengal. Cholmondeley reluctantly agrees.

A specialist MI5 driver is chosen to transport Montagu, Cholmondeley, and the corpse to the R.N. Submarine Base in Holy Loch, Scotland. The corpse is then loaded onto the submarine HMS Seraph. In the early hours of 30th April, the Seraph arrives in the Gulf of Cadiz and drops the corpse into the sea. It is later washed ashore and found by fishermen in Huelva, Spain. Operation Mincemeat attempt to get the fake documents to Madrid. The mission is however, hampered by bad luck, as the Spanish have resisted Nazi corruption better than anticipated. Captain David Ainsworth (Nicholas Rowe), the British naval attache in Madrid, meets with Colonel Cerruti of the Spanish Secret Police in one last attempt to land the papers in the hands of the Nazis. When Martin's personal items and the secret letters are eventually returned to London supposedly intact, a specialist at Q Branch figures out that the documents were indeed tampered with. This gives Montagu, Cholmondeley and the team hope that Germany retrieved the fake information.

Jean is ambushed in her own home at night and threatened by a man claiming to be a spy for an anti-Hitler plot within Germany. She tells him that Major Martin was traveling under an alias but the classified information was real. After he leaves, Jean informs Montagu and Cholmondeley. They come to believe that Colonel Alexis von Roenne (Nico Birnbaum), who controls intelligence in the Nazi High Command, sent the man to verify information so Von Roenne could undermine Hitler. However, they have no way of being completely sure. Montagu takes Jean to his home for protection much to Cholmondeley's chagrin, but shortly afterwards she accepts a job in Special Operations and leaves London.

On 10th July, the invasion of Sicily commences along the beach heads of the south-west and south. The news arrives that the Allied Forces suffered only limited casualties, the enemy is retreating, and the beaches have been held. They receive a message from Churchill soon afterwards saying 'Mincemeat swallowed. Rod, line and sinker'. 

Early the next morning, while sat outside on the steps beside the Duke of York Monument just off The Mall, Cholmondeley admits to Montagu that he received his brother's remains in return for spying on him. Feeling sympathetic and relieved that Operation Mincemeat was a success, Montagu offers to buy Cholmondeley a drink even though it's only 8:00 o'clock in the morning.

Before the end credits role, the closing epilogue states that Operation Mincemeat saved potentially thousands of lives, Montagu reunited with Iris after the war and remained happily married until his death in 1985, Jean married a soldier, Hester continued as Director of the Admiralty Secretarial Unit, and Cholmondeley remained with MI5 until 1952, later married, and traveled widely. Major William Martin's identity was revealed to be Glyndwr Michael in 1997 when an epitaph, with his real name, was added to Martin's headstone in Spain.

'Operation Mincemeat' is a solid enough WWII drama that moves along at a steady pace, has some stoic stiff upper lip performances from Firth, Macfadyen and Isaacs especially, and the production values setting the look and feel of early 1940's London is spot on. For a period piece centred firmly on espionage, intrigue, subterfuge and oneupmanship this films ticks all of those boxes, but is let down by the romantic triangle that Montagu, Cholmondeley and Jean Leslie find themselves in and from which no one comes out the victor. It is interesting to see all the early nods to James Bond as penned by Flynn's Ian Fleming, including Q Branch, M and a wrist watch with a built in buzz saw, and it was he who, after all, came up with the plan to stash a corpse full of 'top secret intelligence' to foil the Germans into thinking one thing while the Allies were doing something completely different - a stroke of genius that could have been lifted straight from one of his novels. Certainly worth the price of your cinema ticket, made all the more worthwhile knowing that this film is based on an extraordinary true story of deception and those unknown soldiers left at home to fight another kind of war from the shadows, but who nonetheless contributed to such a remarkable outcome to the war effort.

'Operation Mincemeat' merits four claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a possible five claps.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-