When the German Navy stops a fishing trawler in neutral waters, it doesn’t look good for the two men on board. But considering these men are Major Gus March-Phillips (Henry Cavill) and Anders Lassen (Alan Ritchson), the Germans soon find they are more than meet the eye.
So begins THE MINISTRY OF UNGENTLEMANLY WARFARE, directed by Guy Ritchie and based on declassified files of the British Special Operations Executive (SOE) in a book by historian Damien Lewis. It is 1939 and Britain is dying by inches. Pounded by bombs, cut off from aid by prowling U-boats, Prime Minister Winston Churchill (Rory Kinnear) faces an insurrection by his military commanders; they want him to surrender to Hitler. Churchill, outraged but desperate, resorts to an impossible scheme: set loose a team of disavowed criminals to strike the enemy’s ability to resupply those U-boats.
With help from Brigadier Gubbins (also known as “M”, played by Cary Elwes) and his aide Ian Fleming (Freddie Fox), Churchill meets with March-Phillips and makes him an offer. March-Phillips helps himself to Churchill’s cigars and whiskey before he agrees… though he stipulates that he wants his own team. He brings on board: Lassen, a Swede who lost a brother to the Nazis; Henry Hayes (Hero Fiennes Tiffin), an Irish sailor; arsonist Freddy Alvarez (Henry Golding); and… Geoffrey Appleyard (Alex Pettyfer), a friend of March-Phillips, who has inconveniently been captured by the Germans. M gives them the mission–sink a ship in a neutral African port, nominally under Spanish control–and adds that they will have help from local casino owner Robert Heron (Babs Olusanmokun) and Marjorie Stewart (Eiza Gonzalez), whose family in Germany was sent to the death camps.
Working together, they must outsmart the sadistic Nazi overseer of the resupply effort, Heinrich Luhr (Til Schweiger), and sink the freighter before it can leave port. Along the way, March-Phillips and his commandoes must liberate Appleyard, race through enemy waters to reach the port, and throw their plans out the window when unexpected complications arise. But what this leads to is a far more audacious scheme than any of them might have imagined. If they can rely on the help of “the Prince of Fernando Po,” Kambili Kalu (Danny Sapani), things just might work out.
Meanwhile, Churchill and M struggle to keep the mission secret. If the team is caught by the British, they’ll be arrested as criminals; if caught by the Germans, they’ll be executed as spies. But even the most important secrets can’t be kept forever…
MINISTRY is undeniably a Ritchie production, where underdogs face long odds with blue collar fatalism and mordant wit. Cavill seems to be having a blast as March-Phillips, channeling a bit of his Napoleon Solo from Ritchie’s MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E. and leading his team with inspired madness into impossible predicaments. Ritchson also gets to flex his considerable acting skills, giving Lassen a sardonic edge as he cuts his way through hordes of German soldiers.
Gonzalez continues to impress, as Marjorie risks everything against the menacing, reptilian Luhr (who’s done excellently by Schweiger). Pretending to be a gold trader, she also has a terrific scene switching over to sultry lounge singer at a party, while Olusanmokun is a standout as Heron, doing his best to keep things together even as the plan unravels in real time. His frantic improvisations dropped jaws at the screening.
If the movie has a weak element, it’s that the Germans are less capable against our heroes than they might be. Schweiger in particular is given a role that is manifestly evil right from the start; it doesn’t give him much room to grow, but given how much else is happening, his truncated character arc isn’t a mortal sin by any means.
With blithe charm, laughing in the face of death, and a barrel of twists and turns, audiences will find MINISTRY to be a rare treat: a movie based on real events that nevertheless has astonishing thrills and real heart.
A-
This review was co-written with Katherine Bittner
