An intriguing political drama that combines fact and fiction surrounding the 1938 Munich conference.
This adaptation of Robert Harris’ espionage-thriller, released through Netflix on 21 January, features a strong cast and excellent period detail in its costumes and shooting locations. The event itself is something of a historical footnote compared with the events that followed, but the film successfully uses the setting to build genuine suspense, creating legitimate stakes when anyone with only a rudimentary understanding of real events knows the outcome.
George McKay and Jannis Niewöhner star as two young men, former Oxford friends, working for the British and German governments under Neville Chamberlain and Adolph Hitler respectively. Each ends up having close dealings with their leaders, and in Niewöhner’s case this is most disturbing since he is part of an underground network of anti-Nazis desperately working to undermine Hitler’s acquisition of the Sudetenland. Both become drawn into a dangerous game of espionage that unfolds during the conference, putting them both in danger. The story is written seamlessly into historical events, with the acting show stealer being Jeremy Irons as Neville Chamberlain.
The fictional story, whilst tense, is kept to realistic proportions. There are no gunfights, explosions or Nazi murder orgies often found in World War II espionage films. The welfare of the central protagonists is where the stakes lie since the result of the Munich conference is infamously well-known. The weight of momentous, dreadfully inevitable events unfolding around these sympathetic young men is truly felt.
What stops the film being more than a good-looking, efficient piece of historical cinema is the grounded approach to the fictional elements. This is clearly intended to make the events seem as genuine as the reality they exist within, but the suspense can only go so far. What really lets the film down is the representation of Chamberlain: it’s not unfounded to say he was dealt a bad hand as far as his reputation goes.
After all, what choice did he have? Britain was in no position to fight a war with Hitler and, after losing so many friends in the First World War, it was natural for a man of Chamberlain’s moral convictions to avoid another conflict. That’s all well and good, and perfectly plausible, but the film pushes its luck big time towards the end, implying Chamberlain’s appeasement tactics were a clever chess manoeuvre. This does push old Neville’s depiction into the realms of the preposterous, but it’s hardly an issue that sinks the rest of the film.
3/5
