Operation Mincemeat [2021] – Colin Firth, Matthew Macfadyen

Operation Mincemeat is a great british movie about a british operation with some british drama and british comedy. See what I did there? 🙂

However, if its fact-based story proves more fascinatingly outlandish than it’s presented here, Operation Mincemeat remains an engaging and well-acted wartime drama.

Starring Colin Firth and Matthew Macfadyen, the movie tells the story of how two intelligence officers use a corpse and false papers to outwit German troops during the second World War. Cinema aside, it is an interesting study not just for history buffs, but also communications and public relations students.

Being british is not bad. It just means that the movie is dry and one note. The movie mixed spy antics with some drama and thriller elements. Sadly, the british production and final treatment meant that I wasn’t fully engagement and didn’t really feel involved in the movie as much as I hoped. The story and the characters gain literary depth, but they don’t really connect with the audience.

Even when the stakes are high, you just can’t feel it thanks to a lack of change in pace, music, or visuals. You just must really focus to know that: Oh shit, things aren’t going as planned. Considering that the invasion of Sicily depended on this operation, the stakes couldn’t be higher. But even when you finish watching the movie, you won’t feel any stakes to be honest.

Putting all of that aside, it’s an extremely well done and produced movie. One of the best that came out on Netflix in the last two years.

Should you watch it?

When the movie sticks to the intricacies of the planning and execution of the ruse rather than a half-baked romantic triangle that feels more like a bad telenovela, it’s quite enjoyable.

Where can I watch it?

You can stream Operation Mincemeat exclusively on Netflix everywhere.