Late in World War II, the Brits still want their hands on a German Enigma, the typewriter-like machine that constructs and sends coded messages. Parachuting behind enemy lines - with two days to find the factory where Enigmas are made, grab one, and get out - are an unlikely quartet: a queen, a pencil pusher, a bookworm, and an almost secret agent. Plus they are all dressed as women, with only a crash course from the queen. They reach their destination, rendezvous with their German contact, a lovely librarian, and start their search. They seemed doomed to fail; is this a fool's errand? A mismatched team of British Special Services agents led by an American must infiltrate, in disguise, a female-run Enigma factory in Berlin and bring back the decoding device that will end the war. Ten minutes into this film I honestly didn't think I was going to enjoy it. It really looked as though I was going to be treated to a Brits as buffoons and Americans as heroes stereo-typical war movie. However I should have kept in mind that the producer is German, the director Austrian and the writer a British born Jewish actor. I soon found myself quite enjoying the rather ludicrous situation (based on a true story apparently) involving a group of seemingly useless and, for the most part, desk-bound Brits and an American who never completes missions, dressing as women to infiltrate the German factory that builds the Enigma code machines. One is a pen-pusher of rather advanced age who's terrified of the prospect of being dropped behind enemy lines, another is a bi-sexual transvestite who appears way too camp to be capable of doing any more than giving the others make-up and deportment tips. Then there's the brain-box multilingual de-coder, barely out of short trousers, hopelessly naive and with a weak bladder to boot and finally Matt Le Blanc playing apparently dumb but cute like only he can (which I do not mean as a slight on the man).<br/><br/>Only one of these men is in anyway convincing as a woman (and it's not the t.v. - sorry Eddie!) and although I found myself enjoying the film despite myself I just couldn't accept the fact that they were actually getting away with it. The fact that two of them couldn't speak German and they all made no attempts to lower their voices when speaking English didn't sit well either. Were we really expected to swallow the notion that the British army were so stupid that they'd send non-German speaking soldiers on a mission behind enemy lines or, for that matter, that they wouldn't use the option of female spies to do the job? But I'm pleased that I over-came these annoyances and didn't let them spoil my growing enjoyment of the film and its rather delightful assortment of characters. Especially as, very late on in the action, everything becomes clear and falls right into place quite beautifully. But to tell you how that comes about would be to plant a spoiler so I'll not say another word about it.<br/><br/>"All The Queen's Men" actually handles its subject matter extremely well and, considering four of them are wearing dresses, none of the actors are tempted to camp it up anymore than is strictly necessary and they all perform with a good sense of both the comedy (which is, for the most part, subtle) and drama involved. There's a little bit of romance, a touch of pathos here and there and, very importantly, an extremely sensitive yet understated view of how ordinary Germans were dealing with the devastation of the Second World War. Having accepted the somewhat implausible plot, I found myself enjoying the well crafted script and couldn't help but grow rather fond of all the central characters. This film left me smiling and making a mental list of all the people I know who I'd like to share it with. Give it a chance and you might just find yourself agreeing with me. This movie is actually quite entertaining, despite what can be read as a silly premise. It also boasts spectacular performances from Eddie Izzard as Tony and David Birkin as Johnno. Matt LeBlanc, in another big screen attempt, does admirably at not playing dumb, and is suprisingly effective as a hero. What we have here isn't a disaster, exactly, but a very handsomely produced let-down.
Pansgrego replied
345 weeks ago