Operation Mincemeat is a thoroughly entertaining film

Operation Mincemeat is about an audacious trick devised by intelligence officers to fool the Nazis into thinking the July 1943 invasion of Europe would take place in Greece.

The plot to fool the Germans is the brainchild of Ewen Montagu (Colin Firth, pictured) and Charles Cholmondeley (Matthew Macfadyen)

Operation Mincemeat (M)
In cinemas from Thursday
★★★★

During the 1950s there was a spate of British films about the cunning ways the British spy agencies fooled the Germans during World War II. Among the best of them were I Was Monty’s Double (1958) and The Man Who Never Was (1956). Operation Mincemeat is a retelling of the latter story, an audacious trick devised by intelligence officers to fool the Nazis into thinking the July 1943 invasion of Europe would take place not in the most obvious location, Sicily, but in Greece.

Mich­elle Ashford’s screenplay, based on a book by Ben Macintyre, is dialogue-driven and mostly unfolds in smoke-filled rooms in London’s security HQ; but this is a ripping yarn if ever there was one.

The plot to fool the Germans is the brainchild of Ewen Montagu (Colin Firth) and Charles Cholmondeley (Matthew Macfadyen), two MI5 boffins, one from a naval background, the other a former RAF lieutenant.

The idea is to have the dead body of a British officer – an imaginary one – wash up on a Spanish beach carrying a briefcase containing secret documents indicating that the invasion will occur in Greece. Winston Churchill (Simon Russell Beale) gives his approval (“I applaud the fantastic over the mundane”) and the body of a vagrant is acquired and given the identity of Major William Martin, a Royal Marine. Great care is taken to give “Martin” a believable identity, and the outlandish plan moves inexorably ahead, providing satisfactory suspense in the process.

An intriguing element of the plot is that Admiral Godfrey (Jason Isaacs) has his suspicions about Montagu whose brother, Ivor (Mark Gatiss), is thought to be a communist and maybe a spy. Though the film doesn’t mention this, Ivor Montagu was one of the founders of the London Film Society in 1925 and worked as a producer on several of Alfred Hitchcock’s early British films. Also intriguing is the presence on the team of a young man named Ian Fleming (Johnny Flynn); he wasn’t mentioned in the 1956 film, though Fleming’s first 007 book, Casino Royale, had been published in 1953.

Cholmondeley finds himself spying on his colleague especially when he realises that Ewen, whose wife and children are living in America, is getting closely involved with Jean Leslie (Kelly Macdonald), another member of their team.

The 1956 film climaxed with a suspenseful sequence involving an Irish spy (Stephen Boyd) sent by the Nazis to investigate “William Martin”, but the new version omits this entirely, probably because it didn’t happen.

Director John Madden is in good form with this sure-fire material; Operation Mincemeat is a thoroughly entertaining film that makes an improbable story convincing and riveting drama.

-

Downton Abbey: A New Era (PG)
In cinemas
★★

Despite the film’s title there’s nothing “new” about Downton Abbey: A New Era; cliches abound as writer Julian Fellowes – who long ago wrote the marvellous Gosford Park for Robert Altman – recycles tired characters and recklessly purloins the narrative from one of the greatest films ever made, Singin’ in the Rain.

Of course, the new Downton Abbey, like its 2019 feature film forebear, is aimed squarely of the fans of the six-season TV series in which the Upstairs/Downstairs theme was established. All the usual suspects are back, this time ­involved in a couple of principal narrative strands. In the first, the ailing Lady Grantham (thank goodness for Maggie Smith, who relishes even the weakest bon mot) learns that she has inherited a villa in the South of France; she explains that, many years earlier, she’d had a brief romance with the Marquis de Montmiral and that he, having recently died, has bequeathed it to her. His widow (Nathalie Baye) is understandably far from pleased about this ­bequest, and Lady Grantham’s son, Robert (Hugh Bonneville) decides to lead a family delegation to the Riviera to check the situation for himself.

In his absence the remaining family members and staff play host to British Lion Films who, for a tidy sum that will pay for repairs to the abbey’s leaking roof, have been permitted to use the place to film interiors for a silent melodrama titled The Gambler.

Since the year is 1929, by which time “talkies” were well and truly established, it seems odd indeed that ­production would commence on a silent film of this scale. When it becomes clear that silent films are a thing of the past, the film’s director, Jack Barber (Hugh Dancy), encouraged by Robert’s daughter Mary (Michelle Dockery), tries adding dialogue to the previously filmed silent images, but while leading man Guy Dexter (Dominic West) has an acceptable speaking voice, his beautiful, arrogant co-star, Myrna Dalgliesh (Laura Haddock) speaks with a working class accent you could cut with a knife – most unsuitable for the aristocrat she is supposed to be playing. She will have to be dubbed with a more acceptable voice. Gene Kelly must be turning in his grave at this shameless larceny of the theme of his most beloved musical.

The film flaunts its costumes and props and, when in doubt, director Simon Curtis throws in another drone shot of the abbey. But the whole affair seems tired and even the redoubtable Maggie Smith, who heaps scorn on movie ­actors with lines like “I’d rather earn my living down a mine”, is saddled with second-class ­material.

-

Hugh Bonneville stars as Robert Grantham and Michelle Dockery as Lady Mary in Downton Abbey

To Chiara (A Chiara) (M)
In cinemas from Thursday
★★★½

To Chiara is the third film in an unofficial trilogy from writer-director Jonas Carpignano that began in 2015 with Mediterranea and continued two years later with A Ciambra. I haven’t seen these films, but To Chiara stands on its own feet as an insightful exploration into the world of a 15-year-old girl who discovers, belatedly, that her father is a Mafia mobster.

Chiara (Swamy Rotolo) lives in the Calabrian town of Gioia Tauro with her father Claudio (Claudio Rotolo) and mother Carmela (Carmela Fumo). Intriguingly, members of one family are playing the leading roles here.

In the film’s opening sequence Chiara and her sisters fool around happily together indicating that they’re a close and loving family. There follows a very long sequence in which Giulia (Grecia Rotolo) celebrates her 18th birthday amid much merriment (unfortunately Tim Curtin’s needlessly agitated camerawork makes this scene something of an ordeal). During the party, Claudio behaves rather mysteriously, refusing to propose a toast to his daughter (“I just can’t do it; it’s too hard”) which is the first sign that there’s something not right about this apparently happy family.

Swamy Rotolo in To Chiara

Later that night, Claudio’s car, parked on the street, is firebombed, and Chiara is forced into the realisation that her beloved dad is a member of the Ndrangheta, the Calabrian Mafia. She discovers a secret bunker built below the family home, and when Claudio vanishes her worst fears are realised. Swamy Rotolo is a powerful presence in these scenes as the teenager’s loyalties swing back and forth between family and friends.

Eventually a social worker is sent to remove Chiara from her criminal family and relocate her with a “decent” foster family, but Chiara is too rebellious to take this action on the part of the authorities lying down.

For the most part To Chiara is a compelling story, beautifully acted, vividly brought to the screen. It will be interesting to see if Carpignano continues the family saga in a fourth film.