Greece is the word in spy world
OPERATION MINCEMEAT (CERT 12)
A TYPICALLY restrained British dramatisation of an outlandish spot of counterespionage in World War II.
In 1943, Prime Minister Winston Churchill (Simon Russell Beale) hopes to turn the tide against Hitler by landing 100,000 forces on Sicily’s southern shore, liberating the island and then pushing up through Italy into occupied Europe.
Unfortunately, the Germans have caught wind of the manoeuvre.
British intelligence has just five weeks to avoid an Allied bloodbath.
Agents Ewen Montagu (Colin Firth) and Charles Cholmondeley (Matthew Macfadyen) conceive a disinformation strategy to try to dupe the enemy.
They hope to convince the Nazis that the intended target for the incursion is Greece to the east and not Sicily.
Based on an extraordinary true story of subterfuge the tension is spun with restraint and a stiff upper lip.
A love triangle involving Kelly Macdonald’s highspirited recruit, a ploy to forcibly insert one female character deeper into the story, is redundant and would have been acceptable collateral damage of the editing process.
Cinematographer Sebastian Blenkov conjures striking images of “battlefields in shades of grey” to a robust orchestral score courtesy of composer Thomas Newman.
Available digitally now and from Monday on DVD £19.99/Blu-ray £26.99).