Film Review - Six Minutes to Midnight (2021)

Six Minutes to Midnight takes place in 1939 on the Eve of World War 2 and stars Eddie Izzard (who also co-wrote the script) as a journeyman teacher who takes a job at a special Girls school that is both English and German in its heritage but with War looming keeping them safe will not be easy especially when one of the teachers may be a spy undercover.

 

I was surprised at how much I liked this movie, I went into it not really expecting a lot but I am a sucker for historical War stories like this one so I was definitely going to give it a watch and I am very glad I did even if I was the youngest person there by about 30 years and I liked it very much.

 

And what I liked most about it was the fact that it felt like both a drama and a thriller at the same time, a drama in the sense that you are in this English environment and this German-English hybrid school at a time when the world is on the brink of War and a thriller in the sense that War is looming and something must be done to keep these Girls in England and how there are those in Britain who would sell out their country to the Fuhrer and that symbol which made me wince in my seat every time it came on screen even though they were most likely doing it out of fear of the German war machine.

 

And this idea of appeasement which was an idea some in Britain had at that point in time was something that 2017’s Darkest Hour with Gary Oldman tried to explore but to me just felt like all the political talking points Christopher Nolan cut out of Dunkirk that same year but here is explored pretty well I thought and I found it more interesting here than I did in Darkest Hour.

 

As for the performances, Izzard and Dench are good and solid and deliver good work in their roles but the standout for me was James D’Arcy as Captain Drey who really delivered in that role and embodies the above points I mentioned in regards to the thriller aspects of the film.

 

And so that was Six Minutes to Midnight and it’s a good solid little film that I personally enjoyed, 3 out of 5.