MUNICH: THE EDGE OF WAR – Review

Once again the years encompassing the Second World War prove to be a fertile ground for filmmakers, and a compelling subject for filmgoers. This new film focuses on the “lead up” to the US involvement, to give us a look at the dark clouds just beginning to form over Europe. And, as this film infers, the friendship of two young men may have made an impact on the upcoming conflict. One from England, the other in Germany, but both are determined to keep their respective homeland safe from destruction. And everything seems to come to a “boil” during an unexpected reunion in MUNICH: THE EDGE OFWAR.

We first meet these two “school chums” in a flashback prologue. Brit Hugh Legat (George MacKay) and German Paul von Hartman (Jannis Niewohner) are getting blissfully “pissed” at a party celebrating their 1932 Oxford graduation. Much to the chagrin of their mutual “gal pal” Lenya (Liv Lisa Fries), the talk turns to the new political movement in Paul’s home country. He’s thrilled that the new chancellor is restoring pride to his people. Hugh’s more than a bit skeptical…and leery. The story abruptly jumps to 1938 as Hugh makes his way through the crowded London streets, observing its citizens buying gas masks and filling sandbags, on the way to his high-pressure job as a translator for Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain (Jeremy Irons). Concern over a possible invasion of Czechoslovakia is putting a strain on his marriage to wife Pamela (Jessica Brown Findlay), as he insists she take their young son to stay with relatives in the country. Meanwhile, in Germany, Paul also has a government job as a foreign “media monitor” for the chancellor, though he’s secretly soured on Herr Hitler. Paul’s also part of a secret group of insiders wanting to stop “the madmen”. When their plans to arrest Hitler are thwarted, Paul’s secretary/lover gives him a confidential transcript of a meeting outlining Hitler’s plans for conquest. But how to get this report public? Fate opens a door when a “peace conference” is quickly set by Mussolini and Chamberlain with reps for Britain, France, Italy, and Germany meeting in Munich. Hugh is stunned to be invited, then shocked to learn that operatives have gotten word from old buddy Paul (they’ve now estranged), that he wants to give this transcript to him. Can Paul make “the drop” without putting Hugh in jeopardy? And how will the BP respond to this “bombshell” file?

The film hinges on the relationship of the two Oxford alum, played by a dynamic acting duo. MacKay (the main “runner” of 1917) aptly conveys the mood of Great Britain at this time of tension and uncertainty. Hugh is a man being torn by all sides, duty to his country snd job constantly wrestling with his family yearnings. MacKay shows us the anxiety bubbling up in Hugh, as his eyes dart and his body twitches while his wife pleads with him to let her share his feelings. He has moments of peace with the PM, but soon his anxiety takes over as he’s plunged into the espionage arena. But Hugh doesn’t undergo a radical change like his “mate” Paul. In the flashbacks, Niewohner is a firebrand, radicalized into zealotry along with many of his brethren. We soon see that his eyes are open, as Paul is finally “sober” after being drunk on national “pride”. Niewohner shows us how Paul struggles to keep his “mask” in place in public before being able to breathe in his efforts to topple the “false god”. Like Hugh, he’s out of his element as an operative, seeing informers at every glance. Happily, the film grants another great role to a dependable screen vet. Irons helps restore dignity to the often disparaged historical figure, a man who values honor despite the scoundrels surrounding him. At times he’s a kindly mentor to Hugh, a warm “Dutch Uncle” as they exchange school stories. But he’s also a tough taskmaster, demanding the same dedication that he possesses, though we see that it wears him down. The BP is somewhat haunted by the horrors of that first world war and Irons shows us that fear and sadness breaking through his “stiff upper lip”. As for the forces “across the table”, August Diehl embodies the rampant Nazi brutality as a grade-school bully of Paul’s who has been given a bigger “club” to wield. And then there’s “Schicklgruber” himself, a cold megalomaniacal sociopath played with dead-eyed banality by Ulrich Matthes.

Director Christian Schwochow expertly changes the tone for the film, lulling us with a hazy nostalgia in the opening Oxford scenes, before capturing the hovering mood of impending doom for the dizzying dance through a London gearing up for the worst. He then puts us in the middle of Germany, a land seemingly giving into every barbaric impulse (we see berated Jewish citizens taunted and forced to scrub sidewalks). Though the rise of the Nazis has been the subject of many films, it’s given an intimacy here and somehow an immediacy. Recent events here have shown us how our neighbors can be swept up by lies told with vigor and zeal. Much like THE LAST DUEL, this historical tale has an urgency, thanks to the script by Ben Power taken from the novel by Robert Harris. It also makes us view Chamberlain in a new light, showing us that he wasn’t quite the naive incompetent that many have labeled him, though his successor proved to be the forceful leader needed to stare down the evil from the East. Chamberlain believed in honor, but he had a “backup plan”, even hoping that the “Yanks” would join in. The air of tension and paranoia is kept going through the story. And it’s greatly aided by the superb recreation of the period, from the furnishings and auto to the fashion styles and music. MUNICH: THE EDGE OF WAR is a compelling, taut, well-told tale of those risking everything to protect everyone.

3 Out of 4

MUNICH: THE EDGE OF WAR opens in select theatres and screens exclusively in the St. Louis area at Landmark’s Plaza Frontenac Cinemas on Thursday, January 20. 2022. It begins streaming on Netflix the following day.