This film is about the actions of three women involved as spies for the British against the Nazis during world war II. What these women did is extraordinary, and it is absolutely right that we commemorate them, but this film doesn't quite do them justice.
The film is written and produced by Sarah Megan Thomas, who also plays the lead, Virginia Hall. Virginia trained as a spy and served behind enemy lines in France despite having a wooden leg. Radhika Apte plays Noor Inayat Khan, a Muslim of Indian descent, who also spied for Britain in France. Stana Katic plays Vera Atkins - the handler working for the Special Operations Executive responsible for female spies.
I was a little familiar with Khan's story as she featured in an episode of Doctor Who, but I can see why Thomas was attracted to telling the story of these otherwise largely forgotten women who risked everything at a time when women were not treated with the same respect as men. At a time when women were not considered able for field work, they led from the front and showed they had the grit and courage to do it well.
Unfortunately, the script simply tries to do too much. Any one of these women would be a worthy subject for a movie but trying to tell all three of their stories at once means none of them get the screen time they deserve. Their stories and their arcs are truncated in a way that is distracting and left me wishing I could see what was going on in between the moments we saw of each of them.
Khan's story is particularly hurt by this. At one point she seems to simply be wandering aimlessly around Paris until she bumps into someone. Surely there was more method to her brand of madness than this?
(On a terribly minor note, it really irks me in a movie when the General or the CEO or the President or whatever appears to have nothing to do but fret and talk about the relatively minor character who is the movies subject. Here, apparently all the Special Operations Executive top brass have to do with their days is talk about Hall and Khan. Come on! At least give them a line where we see they do have other duties!) (Rant over.)
The film looks good. I don't know what the budget was but imagining it was relatively small, Kim Jennings and Vanessa Porter have done a great job of stretching the money to ensure the period details looks right in production design and costumes respectively.
Lydia Dean Pilcher directs competently and efficiently, and lands the emotional beats when she needs to.
I hate to judge the film for what it isn't but I cannot help thinking the material here would have made for a wonderful mini-series, but is simply too much for a films smaller attention real estate.
The kind of Sunday afternoon fare you'd be perfectly happy watching with the parents one rainy Sunday, or perhaps showing to your pre-teen daughter to show her girls have kicked ass in history too.
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