Film - Operation Mincemeat

Colin Firth plays lawyer Ewen Montagu who is thrust into a senior role in the army, obviously because he comes from privileged stock rather than his skills. As it happens, he has the skills as this is based on a true story.

He works with Charles Cholmondeley (Matthew Macfadyen - so Firth and Macfadyen have both played Mr D’Arcy? You couldn’t make this up). In an era where women worked as the men were fighting in the war, the team is complete by young Jean Leslie (Kelly Macdonald) and Montagu’s secretary, the wise Hester Leggett (Penelope Wilton)

Slightly estranged from his wife, who is sent to America with the kids for ‘their safety’ while her husband joins the Twenty Committee and is tasked with a mission to fool the Nazis.

Ewen Montagu: But the real tribute tonight goes to Iris, my brilliant wife, who in the morning sails to less troubled shores with our nestlings in tow. Iris is wiser than Solomon, stronger than Samson, and more patient than Job. But she has to be. She's married to me.

All the while, we are left to wonder if his brother who he shares a house is a traitor.

The love story is unnecessary and cringie (and fictional) and Operation Mincemeat is a tad long, I liked Ian Fleming turning up as he so often seems to do in all war films these days.

7/10