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-

HOTEL MUMBAI : Wednesday 20th March 2019.

'HOTEL MUMBAI' which I saw earlier last week, is an Australian, Indian and American Co-Produced thriller Directed, Co-Produced, Written and Edited by Aussie Anthony Maras in his feature length film debut. The film saw its World Premier screening at TIFF back in September last year, was screened at the Adelaide Film Festival in October and went on release first here in Australia last week and the US at the end of this month. Based on the 2009 Documentary 'Surviving Mumbai' by Victoria Midwinter Pitt, the film is of the 2008 Mumbai attacks where a group of terrorist attacks occurred in November 2008, when ten members of Lashkar-e-Taiba, an Islamic terrorist organisation based in Pakistan, carried out a series of twelve coordinated shooting and bombing attacks lasting four days across Mumbai. At least 174 people died, including nine of the ten terrorists involved, and more than three hundred were wounded. This film centres around the attack in particular on the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel. The film has generated largely favourable Reviews.

The film opens up with ten disparate men travelling by dinghy along the waterways leading into the heart of the city, all the while listening intently to the ramblings of their leader as he espouses the virtues of the horrific crimes they are about to commit. They come ashore and split up into three taxis, all heading for a different destination upon which to wreak havoc on an unsuspecting populace. The first pair head to a central railway station, the next group head off to a cafe and restaurant precinct, and the next group of four head to the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel, always in close communication with their leader who continually reminds them of the importance of their mission against the western infidel and how they will be rewarded in the kingdom of their God.

We first see the attack on the central rail station where literally thousands of commuters are going about the daily travel routines and how many are gunned down with semi-automatic weapons on a whim. We then cut to a cafe in which an English backpacker guy and his Asian girlfriend are caught in the cross-fire of a random attack by armed gunmen and how they narrowly escape amidst the death and destruction bestowed upon other diners in that unfortunate eatery. We then follow them as they join the wave of fleeing escapees as they seek refuge in the seemingly safe harbour of the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel . . . how wrong could they be?

And so as a wave of devastating terror attacks throughout Mumbai catapult the bustling Indian city of some thirteen million inhabitants into chaos, in the heart of the city’s tourist district, Islamic terrorists lay siege to the iconic Taj Mahal Palace Hotel, with ruthless and merciless abandon. The gang of four terrorists arrive undercover together with those others fleeing on foot from the restaurant precinct, and are simply granted access because of the media coverage that has now erupted around the attacks that have so far come to light. Meanwhile, we follow the routine of one Arjun (Dev Patel) who has a young daughter and another child on the way as he rides his scooter to work at the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel to commence his shift as a Waiter. He receives he pre-service briefing form Executive Chef Hemant Oberoi (Anupam Kher) and goes to work in one of the many restaurants where the more dignified guests choose to dine.

Arriving in advance of the shooting party are wealthy Indian Zahra (Nazanin Boniadi) who checks into one of the hotel’s opulent suites with her American husband David (Armie Hammer), newborn baby and Australian nanny Sally (Tilda Cobham-Hervey) in tow. Then there is the very demanding and particular Russian businessman Vasili (Jason Isaacs) and various other reasonably high profile guests that you would expect in an establishment of this standing. When the random shootings begin in the hotel lobby, Arjun is attending to the orders of his guests in the nearby hotel restaurant. He immediately takes charge ordering everyone to get down under the tables and seek cover, not knowing for sure himself what the hell is going on outside the restaurant doors.

And so what follows is a four day long battle for survival as hotel staff who have a firmly upheld belief that the Guest is King, the guests who all succumb in some way either directly or indirectly to the acts of the terrorists, and the authorities who are at first almost defenceless against ten mere, albeit heavily armed and ruthless mortals having to wait it out for days while the special forces arrive from 800 miles away. Needless to say the tension mounts as Big Bull (the recurring voice in the ear piece of the terrorists) continues to blurt out his specific instructions and how they will be rewarded in the kingdom of their God.

What unfolds is a case of catch us if you can, as one hundred or so guests are held captive in their luxury hotel as four terrorists go about their business of gunning down remorselessly and without blinking so much as an eye basically anyone who moves, gets in their way or doesn't comply with their demands. They patrol the corridors, hallways and rooms armed to the teeth with semi-automatic weapons, pistols and hand grenades and are not afraid to use them in the name of their cause. Sally is left holding the new-born baby as Zahra and David are caught in the crossfire in the restaurant four storeys below, as is Vasili on a neighbouring table. They crouch under a table frantically trying to text Sally who is taking a shower oblivious to the scenes of murder and mayhem unfolding within the hotel. David takes it upon himself to go back to their suite to locate Sally and the baby and in the process has a close call with two of the terrorists but manages to evade them in a lift, thanks to the cover afforded by an abandoned upright food trolley.

David reunites with Sally and the baby in their suite, but then decide to join the other guests now being led by Head Chef Oberoi to a Club Lounge within the hotel that is secure and has no windows. However, in doing so he is captured by the terrorists and taken hostage, with instructions from Big Bull to later execute him and any other captured Westerners in front of all the worlds media looking on. Sally and the baby evade capture by stowing away in a broom cupboard out of sight. Arjun meanwhile is leading his restaurant patrons along the fire exit to the Club Lounge where Head Chef Oberoi has already congregated with several dozen other guests and Hotel staff. Here Vasili comforts Zahra as best he can under the circumstance having lost all contact with David, Sally and her baby.

Meanwhile the local Police force have gathered outside together with the local and international news channels. Four daring cops decide to go in, given that Special Forces are en route but their ETA is still hours away. Needless to say they come to a sticky end in a hail of bullets and a grenade, but not before one of the terrorists is shot in the leg while he tries to break into the Club Lounge having discovered that by now there are about one hundred or so guests and staff holed up inside. The terrorist shot in the leg is sent to rest up and guard the now steadily increasing number of high value largely American hostages, whom they all plan to kill. The other three in the meantime go in search of an alternative entry to the Club Lounge, whilst setting fire to random points within the Hotel. The world watches on via the news channels of explosions within the Hotel, muffled distant machine gun fire, and bursts of flame and billowing smoke from the rooftop and windows.

Before the four cops were gunned down they came across Arjun in the emergency exit stairwell. They asked him to lead them to the surveillance room and then left him safely inside. While watching the terrorist activities on a live feed via closed circuit cameras he observes them trying to gain access again to the Club Lounge via the main entry. Using a grenade to blow the doors Arjun warns Head Chef Oberoi via mobile phone that the terrorists are soon to be upon them. Oberoi orders the one hundred or so guests to use the fire escape which takes them straight out onto the street several floors below. The terrorists gain entry and begin shooting just as Oberoi ducks out of sight - the last through the emergency doors. In a mad scramble to get free, many of the guests are shot as the terrorists randomly fire at them from the stairwell above. Vasili, Zahra and a handful of other guests decide to take a detour via the Hotel Lobby only to be gunned down and taken hostage. Here Zahra and Vasili are reunited with David, bound and lying face down on the floor.

By now the Special Forces have arrived and are readying themselves to launch an attack on the terrorists. The one guarding the hostages is in conversation with Big Bull who tells him that the time has come to kill the hostages without mercy and that he will be rewarded. Systematically he begins shooting the hostages. Vasili who puts up a noble struggle as much as he is able with his hands tied behind his back, is shot and killed, then David, leaving only Zahra who begins singing a Muslim song. This perplexes the terrorist who is confused by a western woman chanting a Muslim song, and despite the demands of Big Bull to put a bullet in her head, the terrorist does not. He leaves to join his colleagues, leaving Zahra to make her escape, which she does through a window which she smashes to draw attention to her whereabouts and to avoid smoke inhalation. She is rescued and taken to safety. Meanwhile the escaping guests and staff have reached the ground floor and spill out onto the street as the Special Forces go in all guns blazing. Included in those guests is Sally carrying Zahra's baby. They reunite in the back of a bus. Arjun is also out. Without any attention he slinks off to find his motor scooter and rides home to meet his wife and young daughter, who needless to say is very relieved to see him safe and well.

The terrorists are forced back into the Hotel Lobby surrounded by the heavily armed Special Forces. It all ends abruptly for the terrorists who are by now cowering behind the Reception desk, rapidly running out of ammunition, but still in communication with Big Bull. A member of the Special Forces makes a dash for the Reception desk, tosses a grenade over the top bringing a swift end to the terrorists and their siege on the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel. We subsequently learn that all but one of the ten terrorists survived, and of the fatalities over the four days half were Hotel personnel. The Hotel reopened its doors as good as new some thirteen months later, and many of that Team who survived also returned to their place of work to resume their old jobs.

'Hotel Mumbai' is a gripping true story that is well crafted and faithfully recreates real archival footage with the Directors vision, and that vision is unrelenting in its depiction of terror, wonton death and destruction at the hands of a small group of well armed committed activists who firmly believe in what they are doing. Whilst there are some action thriller cliches the film maintains the interest throughout, albeit uncomfortably so at times because the killing is so relentless and ever present. What is must be like to live through such an experience, and not knowing if your next breath will be your last, God only knows, but Director Anthony Maras pretty much takes you there offering a candid view of Hotel guests and staff, those poor unfortunates caught in the cross fire, those in the wrong place at the wrong time and of course the ten perpetrators as well, and it's not pretty and doesn't end well for many of them. The film has so far taken just under US$1M since its Release in the US last week too, and is certainly worth the price of your movie ticket.

'Hotel Mumbai' merits four claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a possible five.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

THE DEATH OF STALIN : Tuesday 24th April 2018.

'THE DEATH OF STALIN' which I finally got around to viewing this week is a highly acclaimed political satire Directed by the Scottish satirist, Writer, Producer and Director Armando Iannucci based on the French graphic novel 'La mort de Staline' by Fabien Nury and Thierry Robin. Starring an ensemble cast, the film was shown at TIFF back in early September last year, went on release in the UK in late October, the US in early March, and here in Australia at the end of March. The film has taken US$16M at the Box Office to date, and has picked up eleven award wins and eighteen nominations including two BAFTA nods, and has been banned in Russia, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan and Kyrgyzstan . . . . can't think why!

It is 1953 and the film starts off with a Mozart piano recital by Maria Yudina (Olga Kurylenko) which is broadcast live over Russian Radio from Moscow. Mid way through the recital Comrade Andreyev (Paddy Considine) who is overseeing the live broadcast of the concert, receives a phone call from a mystery speaker asking him to call Joseph Stalin in seventeen minutes, exactly. Unable to contain himself, partly out of fear and partly out of excitement, seventeen minutes clicks over and the numbers are dialled. Stalin asks for a recording of the concert just as it ends, which will be picked up later that evening from the studio. Needless to say the broadcast was not recorded, so in a mad panic Andreyev orders the gathered and and already rapidly departing guests to be reseated, while he reassembles the accompanying orchestra and Maria Yudina. But many of the audience have already left the building, the Conductor has passed out, and Maria wants nothing of it. So Andreyev brings in passersby off the street to replicate the acoustics, hurriedly replaces the Conductor with another of some repute, and bribes the disgruntled lead pianist, and restarts the whole shebang for the purposes of a single recording for one man . . . but of course, Stalin is no ordinary man!

As the recording is handed over, Maria Yudina slips a hand written note in the sleeve of the record telling Stalin he has ruined the country, that he is a Dictator and that she wishes him dead. As Stalin (Adrian McLoughlin) reads it in his country residence, he is stricken and collapses from a cerebral hemorrhage. He is discovered the next day, laying where he fell and the members of the Central Committee are alerted. The first to arrive are NKVD (the interior ministry for the Soviet Union) head Lavrentiy Beria (Simon Russell Beale), who discovers Yudina's note, and Deputy General Secretary Georgy Malenkov (Jeffrey Tambor). As Malenkov panics given that he is now elevated to Acting General Secretary, Beria guides him to take leadership, hoping to use him as a puppet for his own ends. Then the Moscow Party Leader Nikita Khrushchev (Steve Buscemi) arrives with the rest of the Committee, except for Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov (Michael Palin) whom Stalin had added to his hit list only the night before.

The Committee together call upon a number of Doctors to confirm whether Stalin is in fact dead, and if so, the cause of death. However, because Stalin had all the top class Doctors in Moscow killed, the Committee is forced to seek out any third rate Doctors they could find that were still alive. In the meantime Beria shuts down Moscow, orders the NKVD to take over the city's security duties from the Soviet Army, and replaces Stalin's enemy hit list with his own, granting Molotov a reprieve in the process. With Stalin on his death bed overseen by the Committee, the Doctors and Stalin's composed daughter Svetlana (Andrea Riseborough), and mentally unstable son Vasily (Rupert Friend), the ailing Dictator comes around momentarily, before finally popping his clogs. At which point the Committee members with Svetlana and Vasily, hurry back to Moscow as the NKVD pillage through Stalin's country residence, ransack the place and execute its staff and any onlookers.

Later Khrushchev goes to Molotov's home and attempts to secure his support, only to be visited by Beria at the same time seeking Molotov's loyalty by releasing his wife Polina from prison. Malenkov is in due course named Head of Government although his strings are being pulled by a controlling Beria. At the inaugural Committee Meeting in the wake of Stalin's death, Beria sidelines Khrushchev by suggesting he should take charge of Stalin's funeral much to Khrushchev's disdain but he is over-ruled by a unanimous vote (all votes are carried unanimously BTW, again largely out of fear for the possible repercussions of disagreeing). Beria also puts forward many of the liberal reforms which Khrushchev had planned to introduce, as his own ideas winning him further support from the Committee.

While Stalin's body lies in state for three days in the Hall of Columns, Beria's proposals swing into action including the release of many political prisoners, and the restrictions imposed on the Russian Orthodox Church - both of which earn Beria further support from the masses. Meanwhile, Field Marshall Georgy Zhukov (Jason Isaacs) arrives on the scene demanding answers as to why his Soviet Army troops have been sidelined, relieved of their duties and confined to barracks. Khrushchev then quietly approaches Zhukov, who agrees overwhelmingly to provide the Army's support in a coup to overthrow Beria, but only if the whole Committee concurs.

To undermine Beria's growing popularity, Khrushchev orders the trains back into Moscow so enabling thousands of mourners to travel into the city and to pay their last respects to their former leader by filing past his open casket, around which the Committee stand guard of honour. As he planned, the NKVD guards surrounding the Hall firing on the crowd, killing some fifteen hundred innocents. 

The Committee suggests laying the blame at lower ranking NKVD officers as Beria feels that blame associated with his security services will tarnish his reputation. In retaliation, he angrily threatens the Committee with incriminating documented evidence he has on them all. Molotov is the next to fall in line offering his secret support to overthrow Beria, but again, only if the entire Committee agree to it, including Malenkov. 

The day of Stalin's funeral arrives. Khrushchev tells the Committee and Zhukov that he has Malenkov's support, although at this point this is not true. Zhukov and his men overwhelm the NKVD guarding Beria and arrest him. Khrushchev convinces Malenkov into signing the papers for Beria's trial, which he does reluctantly calling that Beria deserves a fair trial. The entire Politburo find Beria guilty of treason, sexual assault, mass murder and countless rapes in a trumped up on the spot court that descends into a screaming match as Beria accuses the Politburo of hypocrisy. Beria is shot dead in the head by one of Zhukov's men, and petrol is immediately poured over the body and it is ignited where he fell. The ashes are later scattered in the wind. 

In the closing scene and some years later when Khrushchev is now the Leader of the Soviet Union (from 1958 until 1964) he is in attendance with his wife at a concert given by the pianist Maria Yudina, while future leader Leonid Brezhnev (who later succeeds him) watches over his shoulder.

There is no doubt that Iannucci has crafted a fine example of dark historical political satire at its most comically absurd and ludicrous. He has assembled a great cast too that pull off their characters dialogue and actions without missing a beat, and all delivered without a single Russian accent in sight (hearing Stalin speak with an east London accent, or Zhukov with a Merseyside accent only adds to the incongruous comedic effect). The jockeying for position by those within Stalin's inner circle immediately following his death, is both farcical and revealing in the depths that those power hungry schemesters will sink to in order to get ahead, and to stay alive, with Beria being the worst of a bad bunch and rotten to the core. Whilst this is a dark satire, it is based loosely on the political machinations of the totalitarian state at the time where paranoia, fear, famine, poverty, labour camps and widespread executions were the status quo. Naturally, these are hardly topics that would inspire mirth and merriment, but maybe that is Iannucci's end game here - to poke fun at a regime that is a blot on the historical political landscape and for some, still within living memory. And this he does, save for the final ten minutes when the comedy falls away to a more serious tone and the main protagonist gets his comeuppance in no uncertain terms. Worth a look for sure to see a fine assembled cast playing it straight, keeping it grounded and making it believable with farcical and at times frightening consequences.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

A CURE FOR WELLNESS : Tuesday 21st March 2017.

'A CURE FOR WELLNESS' which I saw earlier this week, is a psychological horror offering Directed by Gore Verbinski whose previous Directorial credits include three 'Pirates of the Caribbean' offerings, 'The Lone Ranger', the animated 'Rango', 'The Ring' and 'The Mexican' amongst others. Here as well as Directing, he also Co-Produces and came up with the storyline too. The film was released in the US in mid-December to mixed luke warm Reviews, and it failed to find an audience grossing so far just US$21M from its US$40M production budget. A large portion of the film is set in a beautiful fairytale looking castle overlooking the Swiss Alps. The said castle is actually Hohenzollern Castle which is the third of three castles on the site dating back to the eleventh century. It sits atop the 855 metre high (2,805 ft) Berg Hohenzollern, an isolated promontory on the western side of the Swabian Alps. Located between Hechingen and Bisingen approximately 50 kilometres (31miles) south of Stuttgart, in the foothills of the Alps of central Baden-Württemberg, Germany, this castle is the most visited by tourists of any castle in Germany.

Geography lesson over, this films kicks off with ambitious and successful young corporate executive type named Lockhart (Dane DeHaan) working for a successful New York financial services firm who is sent on a mission to retrieve the company's CEO from a seemingly idyllic yet mysterious wellness centre located in the remote Swiss Alps. The Board of Directors back at the Company have an ulterior motive for wanting to retrieve their CEO, Roland Pembroke (Harry Groener), because his signature is needed to execute some important documents that will pave the way for a merger with a competitor company that will see this firm become one of the biggest on the Eastern Seaboard, and from which all Executives will receive a substantial benefit, including Lockhart.

Initially reluctant to undertake the task, Lockhart relents and we see him aboard the Alpine Express as it weaves its way along lush snow capped mountain sides en route to its destination somewhere in the Swiss Alps. He is busy at his computer checking the days trade, speaking simultaneously on his mobile phone to some lackey back at the office, whilst chewing on Nicabate gum.

We then see him in his hire car being driven up the mountain by Chauffeur Enrico (Ivo Nandi) who gives him the full lo-down on the 200 year old tragic and sinister history of the castle before their arrival at the grand spa. Today the spa is said to offer health giving properties from its natural spring waters which is drunk in copious quantities by the residents, and when coupled with various hydrotherapy treatments, water based exercise regimes, a clean diet and lack of alcohol, technology and other worldly distractions make the health retreat very appealing to those that can afford to stay. And the place is busy, full of white robed residents enjoying a meal on the marble verandah, or playing gentle sport on the extensive manicured lawns or engaging in therapeutic treatments to cure their ailments. But nearly all of the residents are old, either close to or beyond retirement age! There would be no one in the place (other than the dedicated staff) who is anything less than sixty!

Upon Lockhart's arrival, he is met with some resistance from the staff, especially Dr. Heinreich Volmer (Jason Isaacs). In demanding to meet with Pembroke he is met with further resistance, but does make contact. Pembroke is very reluctant to engage with Lockhart, but does eventually saying that his corporate days are behind him. Finally, Lockhart does appeal to Pembroke's better judgement, but Lockhart's success is short lived when he is forced to remain at the Centre due to a leg injury sustained in a car accident driving back down the mountain with Enrico, after Pembroke suddenly became unavailable.

Waking up in a bed in the Centre after being out cold for two days and with his leg in a plaster cast, he eventually meets up with another much younger patient Hannah (Mia Goth) who drinks from a cobalt blue bottle a strange looking liquid, that he had seen Volmer also drinking from earlier in the day, and which he claimed were highly concentrated vitamins. Hobbling about on crutches now, he then meets with Victoria Watkins (Celia Imrie) another aged resident and self confessed amateur historian, who divulges things about the Centre's past and the former owner, a Baron, dating back some two hundred years to the time when the original buildings were razed to the ground by all consuming fire. The Baron was so obsessed with having a pure blood heir that he married his sister, but when he discovered that his sister and now wife was infertile, he began performing outlandish experiments on the peasants of the area in an attempt to find a cure. When he did find a cure, his now pregnant wife was burned alive at the stake, but not before the baby was cut from her womb and allegedly tossed in the aqueduct, where   she apparently survived.

Spurned on by the unfolding history of the place, and the mystery of his own observations, Lockhart decides to investigate, and see what he can uncover, becoming more inquisitive with every passing day. When he seeks to reveal his initial findings to Volmer, these are quickly dismissed, and the good Doctor suggests a course of treatments to relieve the stress and anxiety of the recent car accident, his broken leg and to forget the demands of his corporate life. He suggests a session is a sensory deprivation tank for thirty minutes, floating in a state of suspended submerged animation with nothing but an air line and his thoughts to clear his mind. Lockhart nearly drowns when he has visions of being engulfed in the depths of the tank by attacking eels, and when the orderly supervising the treatment is temporarily 'distracted' by a female nurse. He is rescued however, and continues his treatments, and his clandestine investigations therefore.

He witnesses more strange goings on around the property and becomes more suspicious. On his travels around the extensive Centre he comes across a 'Forbidden' wing to which he gains entry. Lockhart enters the transfusion wing of the spa that is in reality a front for strange medical experiments where eels are filtered through the bodies of the patients, to produce the highly concentrated 'cure' that he had previously seen Volmer and Hannah digesting at the end of a pipette. He enters another room to evade capture and is confronted with tanks each containing a resident floating motionless upright - are they dead or alive?

Lockhart is captured by Volmer in the corridors trying to make escape from the horrors he has just witnessed. By now Volmer's patience is wearing thin with this pesky little corporate type sticking his nose in everywhere. Lockhart is subjected to nightmarish treatments that warp his mind like Pembroke that include having a front tooth drilled out without the aid of any anaesthetic, and having eels forced down his throat so that he too can produce the 'cure'.

After his 'treatments', Lockhart's mind is indeed fried. In his room he begins to pen a letter to his employers back in New York stating that he intends to remain at the spa, but in a moment of clear vision, he comes to realise that his leg was never actually broken. Using a smashed drinking glass he cuts off his plaster cast, and lo and behold, no broken leg! He goes in search of Hannah, whom he has forged a friendship with. Concurrently she is experiencing her first menstrual cycle and enters the swimming pool at night, where she bleeds. She doesn't understand what's happening to her body. The eels enter the pool and swim around her legs as if to attack at the smell of her blood, and then form a perfect circle around her keeping their distance. This allows her to leave the pool unharmed. She confronts Volmer in the dining room over dinner, demanding to know what is happening to her body and what it means. Volmer is delighted, and subsequently arranges a lavish party where he intends to marry the young girl.

During the party Volmer leads Hannah down into a secret room below the main buildings into the burnt out ruins of the original castle. There hangs a portrait of the Baron's sister who bears an uncanny resemblance to Hannah, and located all around the room are the results of previous experiments, specimen jars containing human organs and malformed foetuses, and all manner of equipment, transcripts, notes and sundry surgical type paraphernalia. Volmer ties Hannah to a bed and intends to rape her, as Lockhart locates them having realised that Volmer is in fact the father of Hannah. Furthermore it is revealed that Volmer is in fact the Baron who survived the fire of 200 years ago and has lasted these past centuries by consuming the 'cure' in regular small doses. In his attempt to free Hannah a fight breaks out between Volmer and Lockhart, at which point Volmer rips of his face mask revealing a grotesquely disfigured face below and proof positive of his real identity. During the fight, Lockhart manages to engulf Volmer in flame which alights the surrounding soft furnishings and flammable surgical liquids in the room. In turn the fire quickly spreads through the ageing infrastructure, resulting in the Centre erupting in a ball of flame in no time.

Lockhart and Hannah make their escape down the hill on a bicycle, only to collide with a car coming up the hill containing Lockhart's employers who have come to retrieve him and Pembroke. They demand that he return with them to New York and get in the car immediately. After considering his options for all of three seconds, he gets back on the bike with Hannah and cycles around them and down the hill, with a huge grin on his chops!

I enjoyed 'A Cure for Wellness' for its strong acting performances from DeHaan, Isaacs and Goth especially, the solid original story, and the beauty of the cinematography. The film looks great; it creates a sense of foreboding, apprehension and anxiety; and Verbinski is to be congratulated for making a film as original as he has, that is visually stunning, stylish and equally malevolent all at once. However, at a running time of 147 minutes it is overly long and could easily have been cut by twenty minutes; and you would have to question Lockhart's nouse as he randomly signs away unknown documents and doesn't seem to learn from his past mistakes or errors of judgement while at the Centre, which just leave him wide open for further exploitation at the hands of a mad scientist. And the ending, when it eventually does come, is just a little too convenient and too contrived, and it's hard to really root for a character who after all this time we have come to care little for, and have no emotional connection with. That said, the film is worth a look.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-