****
Based on the top secret mission, Operation Anthropoid, Sean Ellis' eponymous film focuses on the assassination attempt of SS General Reinhard Heydrich, a man at the top of the Nazi hierarchy.
Well, readers, of course you would have expected me to go and see Anthropoid - I am a sucker for war films after all. However, what drew me to this film in particular was that I knew very little of the story surrounding the assassination attempt on Heydrich - indeed, I couldn't tell you the names or the circumstances of the people involved. Eager to boost my knowledge, I went along.
It is safe to say that this film is unerringly grim - there are so few moments of light relief, if any, that you leave the cinema feeling as though you have been bludgeoned for over two hours. That's not to say it isn't enjoyable in it's own way, if 'enjoyable' is remotely the right world. Focussing on two British-trained agents, Czech Jan Kubis (Jamie Dornan) and Slovak Josef Gabcik (Cillian Murphy), Anthropoid follows their secretive 'drop' into Nazi-occupied territory, the planning process and the aftermath, wracking up the tension from the very first scene. Bringing effortless class to every frame he occupies, Cillian Murphy plays Gabcik as the stoic, resolute partner to Dornan's passionate, emotional Kubis, who's panic attacks bring a very realist, human angle to the proceedings. Boosted by a capable supporting cast (including Toby Jones, Harry Lloyd and Anna Geislerova), the pair front the film admirably, drawing us into the awful tension of the situation and making us root for them... If only it weren't for the fake accents! Punctuated by scenes of shocking violence, including one particularly disturbing torture sequence which made me look away, the film both grips and repulses, making you want to leave and stay at the same time.
One of the major drawbacks to the film is undoubtedly the use of fake accents. Each cast member who is not a native speaker does admirably with their pronunciation, but their attempts cannot be described as anything other than 'distracting', which definitely results in being less immersed in the film. Secondly, the role of the two love interests in the film is all but null and void, and instead just seems shoe-horned in to try and make us feel more for our central two characters. Yes, I appreciate that the men needed to have female chaperones, but the romance angle fails to serve any purpose or intrigue.
A tense, taut war film that focuses upon perhaps a lesser known story of the period, Anthropoid is a well-made, well-acted addition to the World War Two genre. Let down by fake accents and a frustrating romance angle, the film mixes scenes of horrible tension with moments of violence and troubling torture sequences. You may have to sit for a moment when the credits start to roll...
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