Operation Mincemeat

Originally published on social media on January 12th, 2023

When I heard about this film coming out, I was really excited for two reasons: 1). THE AMAZING CAST — Colin Firth, Matthew MacFadyen, Jason Isaacs, Penelope Wilton (who I recognize from many great British films), and Johnny Flynn (who I recognize from the 2020 “Emma”). 2). I know EXACTLY what this operation was, all about it’s creator, and what happened and was glad to hear them make a movie of because it was CRAZY.

I learned about operation mincemeat last January when I was taking my James Bond class and writing film reviews for #jamesbondjanuary . During this class, we learned many biographical details of the writer and creator of James Bond, Ian Fleming. Before Bond, Fleming held high ranking in the British military and wrote a series of weird and creative operations that almost sound too insane to be true. We learned all about these operations, and operation mincemeat was his most successful. If you watch this film though, don’t look up operation mincemeat before watching it…just watch the film and let the fact that this actually happened BLOW YOUR MIND.

As I previously mentioned, this film was filled with an incredible cast, so naturally the acting was superb. My favorite character was Matthew MacFadyen’s Charles Cholmondeley who is endearingly awkward and says cute but hilariously embarrassing things. What I personally enjoyed were all the nods to Fleming and Bond in this film. Each nod was accurate to what we know about Fleming and Bond. There were the perfect number of nods and each wasn’t overly emphasized, as would be appropriate for that moment in history when no one knew what was about to hit them. However, in spite of all the good, I have two noteworthy complaints:

First, the film takes twenty minutes to introduce characters and plot. With that, the first twenty minutes feel slightly chaotic and confusing. It gets good after that, but you just have to stick with it. Maybe I wouldn’t feel this way watching it a second time?

The other complaint has to do with a fabricated inappropriate moment that has nothing to do with the plot. You’ll know it when you see it…

Overall, I enjoyed this film!