The Exception is a great film that does no other film has done before. Bringing the two colossal changes of 20th Century together in one story.
In one side, we have Kaiser Wilhelm II, the pathway to the most radical change in history, the death of "the old way"; the time of romantic chivalry and imperial warfare that always ended up in a status quo in the grand scheme of things. On the other side, we have an extreme "new way"; Hitler's Third Reich, a radical change that the impredictable chaotic atmosphere of the WWI has brought about. A world where mass murder is seen as the state-of-the-art scientific method to achieve greatness. All it takes to go from "the romantic old" to "the radical new" is a war that was fought four times longer than it was expected ( the demise of the frequently mentioned romantic belief "we will be home by Christmas"), with ten times the predicted death and destruction. And inevitably, a decade of turbulent national economic crisis on the part of Germany.
Christopher Plummer "is indeed" Kaiser Wilhelm II, what a powerhouse performance. Plummer and Janet McTeer (who portrays Wilhelm's wife, former Empress Hermine) are the embodiment of the Romantic Imperial way of thinking with their exceptional portrayals of the characters. Eddie Marsan, as Himmler, on the other hand, is a punch-to-the-gut portrayal of the new, monstrous entity that Germany has become after her sufferings since the end of The Great War. His cold, machine-like estrangement from humanity portrays the Third Reich marvelously.
In one side, we have Kaiser Wilhelm II, the pathway to the most radical change in history, the death of "the old way"; the time of romantic chivalry and imperial warfare that always ended up in a status quo in the grand scheme of things. On the other side, we have an extreme "new way"; Hitler's Third Reich, a radical change that the impredictable chaotic atmosphere of the WWI has brought about. A world where mass murder is seen as the state-of-the-art scientific method to achieve greatness. All it takes to go from "the romantic old" to "the radical new" is a war that was fought four times longer than it was expected ( the demise of the frequently mentioned romantic belief "we will be home by Christmas"), with ten times the predicted death and destruction. And inevitably, a decade of turbulent national economic crisis on the part of Germany.
Christopher Plummer "is indeed" Kaiser Wilhelm II, what a powerhouse performance. Plummer and Janet McTeer (who portrays Wilhelm's wife, former Empress Hermine) are the embodiment of the Romantic Imperial way of thinking with their exceptional portrayals of the characters. Eddie Marsan, as Himmler, on the other hand, is a punch-to-the-gut portrayal of the new, monstrous entity that Germany has become after her sufferings since the end of The Great War. His cold, machine-like estrangement from humanity portrays the Third Reich marvelously.