The backgrounds are unusually detailed for a film shot on a modest budget, and the setting is so evocative of rural England less than a month before the start of World War II that I wished a more convincing story were playing out in the foreground. Still, the scenery was what stayed with me most vividly-a tribute to the production designer, Candida Otton, and the cinematographer, Chris Seager. “Six Minutes to Midnight” is a spy thriller, not a musical, and it isn’t bad at all the factual history it was based on is fascinating. Production companies: Mad as Birds, Motion Picture Capital, Ella Communications, Lionsgate U.K.There’s an old Broadway joke about a musical being so bad that you walk out humming the scenery. This stodgy entry is watchable enough though unlikely to stir much feeling. And the wrap-up is pure corn, glossing over any possibly conflicted feelings in the girls - spoiler - by having them sing a rousing “It’s a Long Way to Tipperary.” It sure is.įollowing Simon Stone’s more satisfying The Dig, with Carey Mulligan and Ralph Fiennes, this is the second Brit historical drama in as many months to close with Neville Chamberlain’s solemn radio address to the nation confirming that the country is at war. Goddard’s direction lumbers through the protracted climactic stretch, diluting the impact of a supposedly tense scene on the beach and some nighttime aerial activity that unfolds in a hurried blur. When a character coldly says of her students, “They were never your girls,” it’s just one more predictably melodramatic moment in a film littered with them. Following the recent unwatchable Blithe Spirit remake, this marks another film in which even Dench’s formidable charms can’t provide much spark. Of the girls, only Marei’s keenly observant Gretel and Maria Dragus’ alpha mean girl Astrid have any kind of character definition. However, much of the dramatic weight hinges on Juri’s Fraulein Keller, who makes a pallid impression. The actors generally are fine within the constraints of stock characters, including Jim Broadbent as the cheery village bus driver, who plays a strategic role in Thomas’ flight James D’Arcy as a sinister legal authority and co-writer Jones as his Corporal sidekick. But even with the high stakes of war, subterfuge and innocence lost, this is a fairly torpid account that never gathers much steam.

There’s a chilling moment or two in which the eyes of the Augusta-Victoria girls appear to be opened to the stark reality of the political world for which they are being groomed. But Miller is framed for the murder, resulting in a manhunt that means he has to evade pursuit by both British authorities and German spies, while attempting to raise the alarm with intelligence HQ in London. Miller alerts Colonel Smith, just in time for the latter to be shot by an assassin whose identity anyone paying attention will have guessed. Then in another stroke of remarkably convenient espionage luck, he overhears a plot to fly the entire student body out before war is declared, in addition to reporting the names of Brits working behind enemy lines in Germany. He snoops around and finds a list of names that appear to be German spies working undercover in Britain. IFC Films Acquires Gia Coppola's 'Mainstream' Romantic Dramaĭuring the Fellowship evening, Ilse pins a swastika to Thomas’ lapel, which won’t look good in photographs released later. “Faith and perseverance” is the school motto, she informs him, stressing the importance of readying the girls for an upcoming Anglo-German Fellowship presentation. Soon after, Fraulein Keller welcomes Thomas Miller (Izzard) to the school where he is interviewed by devoted British governess Miss Rocholl ( Judi Dench) for the abruptly vacated teaching position. Meanwhile, on the beach, German physical education teacher Ilse Keller (Carla Juri) puts the girls through their calisthenics drills like a scene out of Leni Riefenstahl. He cycles to the seaside pier but mysteriously disappears before he can call for help. Wheatley (Nigel Lindsay), the Augusta-Victoria’s English teacher, panics when it appears that his British intelligence identity has been exposed. Directed with more efficiency than urgency by Andy Goddard (the Dylan Thomas bio-drama Set Fire to the Stars), who wrote the screenplay with Izzard and co-star Celyn Jones, the film opens in high-drama mode in late summer 1939, as Britain braces for war with Germany.

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