Weekend Watch: Munich: The Edge Of War
Dry World War II thriller relies on solid acting and lots of chat.
Image Credit: Netflix
Welcome to the latest edition of Weekend Watch, in which I recommend (or occasionally warn against) movies or TV shows I’ve been checking out. This week, Europe teeters on the brink of war. Follow James on Twitter: @jamwhite
Not, as some wags might suggest, a sequel to Steven Spielberg’s superb Nazi-hunting thriller, Munich: The Edge Of War is a sturdy if somewhat slapdash historical drama set in 1938 as Europe was staring down the barrel of conflict with Adolf Hitler’s forces.
Adapted from Robert Harris’ fictionalised account detailing the negotiations over Hitler’s plan to take over Czechoslovakia, this comes from writer Ben Power and director Christian Schwochow, who together have cooked up a story of lesser players working behind the scenes in politics and espionage look to avert the war. The rulers, meanwhile – Neville Chamberlain is assayed by Jeremy Irons, while Hitler is brought to life by Ulrich Matthes – are on opposing sides of the issue; while Chamberlain, still haunted by an inability to fight in the last great war, thinks he can secure peace, Hitler remains committed to conquest.
Slightly stymied by the fact that everyone knows the eventual outcome (three words: World. War. Two), Munich and its creators nevertheless push ahead with the narrative, relying on the invented characters to offer up much in the way of surprise. George MacKay plays devoted Civil Service worker Hugh Legat, who ends up becoming private secretary to Chamberlain as the Prime Minister wades into diplomacy. His opposite number, Jannis Niewöhner’s Paul von Hartman is working against the Führer, in the hopes of preventing the conflict.
When we first meet them, however, they’re best pals at Oxford years earlier, hanging out and drinking with Paul’s Jewish girlfriend Lenya (Liv Lisa Fries). Paul then is a fervent nationalist, supporting Hitler’s rise to power in the hopes that it’ll transform his beloved Deutschland. Viewing the story through the old chestnut of friends who become, well, in this case, not quite enemies, as they have roughly the same cause, is used effectively even if it doesn’t feel totally fresh.
MacKay does what he can with a somewhat dry role, while Niewöhner is handed more of a firebrand, albeit one whose transformation from die-hard Hitler fan to nation-saving wannabe is only sketchily filled in. Irons is naturally impressive as Chamberlain, giving him a sense of weighted grief and import, while Matthes brings a scary intellect to one of history’s worst monsters.
Ultimately, despite the potential for a powder keg of politics and pre-war tension, the film boils down to a lot of men talking in rooms and occasional foreign trips. It never quite delivers on the promise and short-changes many of the female characters (Jessica Brown Findlay, as Hugh’s wife Pamela, is mostly reduced to the worried spouse archetype, despite early flirty chemistry).
It’s far from perfect but could certainly fill a slot in that dad-war genre of historical dramas that used to play on TV on Sunday afternoons or Bank Holidays. Adapted as a series, you could easily see it as a series on the BBC or PBS, but as a thriller, Munich: The Edge Of War rarely gets the pulse racing.
Munich: The Edge Of War is on Netflix now.