"The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare": review

Henry Cavill and the Bad Facial Hair Day

Starring Henry Cavill in another role that requires him to sport bad facial hair (good God, that moustache), "The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare" is a 2024 Guy Ritchie action-comedy based on real events from World War II, specifically Operation Postmaster, which aimed to disrupt German supply lines to their U-boats. It focuses on the creation of the first-ever special-forces team, and it even includes a nod to military man Ian Fleming, who leveraged his experience in intelligence to write the James Bond novels. Fleming was an officer involved in Operation Postmaster; he appears in a couple crucial scenes. While the movie never mentions this, the trivia around the movie notes that the special-forces team leader, Gus March-Phillips, was the inspiration for James Bond himself. The film also stars Eiza González, Alan Ritchson, Henry Golding, Alex Pettyfer, and a few others. Ritchie also cowrote the screenplay.

It's 1941. Britain is being bombed by Germany, and Prime Minister Winston Churchill's subordinates are all urging him to surrender and allow German rule as a way to keep Britons alive. Defiant in the face of defeat, and cut off from American aid by U-boats patrolling the Atlantic, Churchill (Rory Kinnear) launches a scheme called Operation Postmaster, which will target a particular supply vessel, the Duchessa d'Aosta, a boat that carries provisions that will ultimately end up on U-boats in the Atlantic. If the supply ship is sunk, the U-boats will quickly become useless, and the Americans will be able to proceed across the Atlantic to Great Britain's aid, where they can help turn the tide of the war. To this end, Churchill and a few loyal military officers under his command bring roguish Gus March-Phillips (Cavill) out of prison. March-Phillips, not on good terms with the British government, declares he must assemble his own team: Anders Lassen (Ritchson), a hulking Dutchman who fights for Britain and is good with knives and bows; Freddy Alvarez (Golding), a talented swimmer and explosives expert; Henry Hayes (Hero Fiennes Tiffin), an Irish soldier and navigator whose big brother—killed by Nazis—was March-Phillips's good friend; and Geoffrey Appleyard (Pettyfer), a gifted planner who, for the moment, has been captured and is being tortured by the Germans. A second two-person team, meant to arrive first, will immediately leave for the island of Fernando Po, a neutral Spanish territory off the coast of Cameroon, currently controlled by Nazis and the base of the U-boat resupply operations. This second team consists of Richard Heron (Babs Olusanmokun) and Marjorie Stewart (González). Their job is to keep the Nazis occupied while the main team deals with the Duchessa d'Aosta.

So the first step of March-Phillips's plan is to rescue Appleyard, who is being held in the Canaries, then to proceed on to Fernando Po. With Appleyard rescued in an attempt that very nearly goes tits-up, the now-complete team, on board the humble fishing trawler Maid of Honor, risks coastal U-boats as it rounds the curve of upper western Africa. Various complications arise, and the mission is unable to proceed smoothly from A to B, but the main team eventually reaches Fernando Po while the second team does what it can to keep the Nazis distracted. I won't reveal how the mission ends, but the team proves unable to sink the Duchessa d'Aosta. They instead think up a different solution to their problem.

Guy Ritchie really seems to have dropped his original signature style in favor of a more conventional approach to filmmaking. He used to be known for his flashy, dramatic cinematography—slam-bang sound editing coupled with slow-motion shots of brutal impacts. Think of his earlier works like "Snatch" or his two Sherlock Holmes films (with Robert Downey Jr.). Something happened over the intervening years to gentle this once-hyperkinetic director who used to edit films like Edgar Wright and have the visceral intensity of Quentin Tarantino. I noticed this not long ago when I reviewed his "The Covenant," too. "Ministry" is slow-paced, and the dialogue isn't nearly as sharp and witty as in much of Ritchie's earlier work. But the slow pace suits "Ministry," which is the story of a well-planned operation coming together, the camaraderie of the soldiers tasked with completing the mission, and the larger backdrop of World War II.

Some aspects of the film don't add up. There are, for example, some scenes where the dialogue makes no sense. At one point, as the Maid of Honor is rounding the coast of Africa, the team is waylaid by a British patrol. The special-forces crew tries the ploy of posing as Swedish fishermen, but the British naval vessel's captain sees through this and demands that someone other than Anders Lassen (who is Dutch, but speaks Swedish) speak in Swedish. March-Phillips confesses that none of the crew is Swedish, but the captain of the naval vessel then speaks to March-Phillips as if he knows and recognizes him... so why the demand to speak in Swedish? I was also a bit confused by the characterization of Gus March-Phillips. He comes off, most of the time, as cool and collected, but there are a few scenes in which he sports a gleefully frenzied expression as he's mowing down Nazis. Where this sudden insanity comes from is never explained. I also thought that Alan Ritchson's portrayal of Anders Lassen reminded me a bit of every gay-German stereotype I've ever seen. On the one hand, Lassen is a brutal killer known for ripping the hearts out of his victims; on the other, he sounds like a high-voiced, mincing Teutonic fashionista.

Those complaints aside, the actors hit their marks, and they all do a good job of giving us a sense of the two teams' camaraderie. Richard Heron, without ever saying so, obviously cares deeply (in a paternal way) for his teammate Marjorie Stewart, whom he sends out to seduce the island's head Nazi Heinrich Luhr (Til Schweiger, the likable Stiglitz from "Inglourious Basterds"). Heron knows he might be sending Marjorie to her death (it doesn't help that she's ethnically Jewish), and the concern shows on his face. The rapport between March-Phillips and the "prince of Fernando Po" Kamp Billy (Danny Sapani), who provides the British team with his own reinforcements, is one of warm mutual respect. All of the actors excel at showing how Operation Postmaster was a team effort involving skilled, dedicated people.

Heist movies are generally entertaining when done well. This particular movie is based on actual events (as with "The Covenant," we see the real-life photos of the main characters during the ending credits), but it's obviously highly fictionalized, which I suppose is to be expected. Overall, I found "Ministry" to be an engaging watch, but it continues the trend of more sedate Guy Ritchie films. Unlike George Miller (of the Mad Max franchise), who remains as crazily over-the-top as ever, Ritchie seems to be mellowing with age. His newer films have a more muted and subtle quality to them, and I'm still trying to decide whether this is on the whole a good or a bad thing. For this film, I'd say it's a good thing.