Neville Chamberlain is one of our most reviled prime ministers for his apparent appeasement policies. Robert Harris’ book ‘Munich’ and this film Munich: The Edge of War based on it, works on the theory that Chamberlain knew exactly what Hitler’s intentions were, and his actions in 1938 to secure the Munich Agreement were done to buy enough time for Britain to get ready for war.
That idea, not without merit up to a point, is wrapped in a thriller plot. George MacKay plays Hugh Legat, Chamberlain’s secretary who accompanies the mission at the instruction of MI6. He is to make contact with a German Foreign Office translator who he was at Oxford with, Paul von Hartmann, who wants to other throw the German leader and who has incriminating papers that he wants the British to see.
What unfolds is an intelligent and extremely tense story as the authorities close in on von Hartmann and Legat. Ben Power has done an excellent job of adapting Harris’ gripping book. The period details are mostly spot on and it is good to see a film of this sort have a decent budget in order to do that.
MacKay and Jannis Niewohner, who plays von Hartmann, are good as their fictional characters. But it is the supporting cast of real life characters that really shines. Jeremy Irons is convincing as the British PM, with Alex Jennings as Horace Wilson and Mark Lewis Jones as Osmund Cleverly bringing class and gravitas to their parts. I would also love to see more of Anji Mohindra, an assistant on the trip who is more than she seems. In fact, the only casting error was with Ulrich Matthes who makes an unconvincing Hitler.
Available to watch on Netflix.
Rating: 8.5 out of 10