My Review - Six Minutes to Midnight
My Rating 7/10
Six Minutes to Midnight is a 2020 British war drama film directed by Andy Goddard from a screenplay by Goddard, Celyn Jones and Eddie Izzard, starring Izzard, Judi Dench, Carla Juri, James D'Arcy and Jim Broadbent.
I enjoyed Six Minutes to Midnight mainly for Judi Dench's performance and the effective music score by Marc Streitenfeld .
Eddie Izzard and Celyn Jones wrote the story set in a boarding school for German girls just before the commencement of The Second World War .The story is loosely inspired by the real-life Augusta Victoria College, located in the also real-life coastal town Bexhill-on-Sea (county of Sussex, south-east to England).
The establishment is under surveillance by the British secret service, and the film follows the attempts by a British agent (masquerading as a school teacher) to uncover a plot to repatriate the pupils and discover what happened to his predecessor, who has disappeared.
I thought the female cast held this film together especially Judi Dench casting as Miss Rocholl the Principle of the boarding school and Carla Juri as the Head Teacher Ilse plus all of the 20 young girl students were well cast special mention of Maria Dragus cast as Astrid the Class Leader.
I was less impressed by the male cast including Eddie Izzard who is cast as Thomas Miller the Agent posing as a school teacher . No spoilers but I would have preferred Actors of the caliber of Ben Whishaw or Benedict Cumberbatch in this important role. James D'arcy as Captain Drey I thought was almost melodramatically comedic at times in his performance.
I kept thinking this is a story Alfred Hitchcock would have Directed far better and very differently to Andy Goddard .
Judi Dench now 86 years old and very vision impaired amazes me with her aptitude for remembering lines and even more for her dedication to any part she plays . There's a scene where she realises what's happening and not a word is spoken but all is conveyed in her facial reactions.
Six Minutes to Midnight for me had a great beginning and conclusion but got a little off track somewhere in the middle but it's well worth a look.
