The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare (2024)

Score: 3 / 5

Historical revisionism and swashbuckling action make for a breezy two hours in Guy Ritchie's latest feature film. Ritchie has made his own niche in Hollywood in the past fifteen years, launching from indie dark comedy crime films to mainstream culture in quasi-steampunk adaptations of well-known titles (starting with Sherlock Holmes and The Man from U.N.C.L.E.). Since then, he's forayed into war films, fantasy musicals, and even back into his original territory. Ritchie is a middling director for me, one whose vision is indisputable and sense of entertainment never fails but whose ideas and treatment of source material feel misguided at best and often irreverent. So it is with The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare, a story inspired by a real-life operation in World War II that was finally declassified within the past decade. While it makes for a suitably entertaining romp, it makes for little more than that, mishandling its themes and characters even as they dazzle in high-energy action pieces.

I won't recount the convoluted plot here, partly because many of its specifics escaped me and partly because it is so fictionalized from the historical Operation Postmaster that it hardly feels grounded in much reality. On a purely cinematic level, it's difficult to follow the plot due to the film's sound editing, which often favors the score and sound effects to the detriment of its dialogue. This will need to be rewatched with subtitles at some point, especially for anyone unfamiliar with British slang and of course endless historical references to people, places, and weapons. It's also told with more than a bit of tongue in cheek with some play on its own timeline, making for a confusing few comments from Churchill (Rory Kinnear) about the US trying to remain out of the war. By film's end, it seems that the 25-day time jump might cover for the December attack on Pearl Harbor, but the rest of the film seems too eager to posit this operation as the gateway for Americans to join the fight.

The film also bounces a bit between war advisory meetings between British military intelligence officials, including Cary Elwes and Freddie Fox, the latter playing Ian Fleming in a cute, knowing nod to what he'd eventually create. They enlist Henry Cavill for their mission: assemble a special ops force to sail to Guinea and sink an Italian supply ship that reinforces German U-boats bedeviling British forces and isolating the UK from outside aid. Cavill isn't impressed by their request -- though he does like their brandy and cigars -- but seems eager to do what he does best and to take out some Nazis along the way. So he assembles his ragtag team of reliable reprobates and they make ready. 

The cast is attractive well past the point of distraction, which is especially jarring at film's end when the real-life agents' pictures are shown. Cavill himself, barrel-chested and mustached, harnesses a strange mischief here where he feels less knowingly cheeky than earnestly irreverent. One imagines Ritchie is much the same. As Cavill maneuvers through allies and enemies alike, he always notes their coats, making a point to collect ones he likes, most notably that of a Nazi officer he only moments previously dispatched. It's wacky and cute, sure, and I think that leads me to how I feel about the film as a whole. 

There is something to be said for irreverence, even in historical material and even with intense subject matter. But Ritchie seems unsure of what he's actually trying to do here. If he's aiming for earnest wartime action -- and that is a significant part of this film -- his quirky, buoyant energy invites more laughs than suspense or thrills. If he's trying to simply laugh at the Nazis getting slaughtered en masse, we have to wonder why there is a palpable sense of danger from them, despite few real consequences to their actions. My impression of this project was originally that of an unwieldy mix of old Hollywood glamour with Tarantino-esque historical revisionism and hyperviolent irreverence; after some reflection, it feels so much more like if Matthew Vaughn tried to make a serious war film. Even Spielberg laughed at Nazis in the Indiana Jones franchise without trivializing them, but here there just seems to be a disregard for the very real stakes underpinning this entire operation.

If being a little too much fun for its own good is a bad thing, you wouldn't know it on a casual watch here. Its ensemble cast may not offer much by way of dynamic development, but they certainly share their reasons for hating Nazis and for being the rebellious troublemakers they are. And they are fun to watch, whether they're kicking butt or briefing after the latest firestorm. Their respective expertises aren't clear, oddly, beyond Henry Golding's penchant for explosives and apparent ability to swim vast distances in haste. The most hulking member of their band, whose archery skills make for one of the film's loveliest visual gags, may or may not be gay. Alex Pettyfer is brooding and flat, which is his usual offering, but could have been really interesting, as we first meet him in the process of getting tortured for information. Cavill has a right-hand man who is only in the film to say positive affirmations to him and his plans. Oh, and there are two others, a Black man (Babs Olusanmokun) and a Jewish woman (Eiza Gonzalez) who go undercover into the Nazi harbor to learn about the ship and its supply runs. She ends up trying to seduce the sadistic SS officer (Til Schweiger) in a few cringey scenes that completely took me out of the movie; she's not meant to be in combat, but she earlier proved her mettle with a gun, making her whole arc a not-at-all-compelling gimmick.

Despite inviting us to forget its own stakes, the film is beautiful beyond its cast. Clearly expensive production design is not wasted for a moment, sweeping us up in the nautical adventure and island harbor with incredible attention to tactile detail. Graciously clear cinematography and editing allow us to follow the action without getting lost in it. Even when the film threatens a moment of lull, it gets launched again into action quite organically by the plot (the two undercover agents learn that the target ship is unsinkable and will be moving days earlier than expected). This expedites the already breakneck pace right before the climax. In a film whose politics are obvious (Nazis are BAD) and whose need for violence mobilizes itself, there is a certain mindless charm in watching hotties carve their way through hordes of their enemies without fear that they will die. It's just going to depend on your mileage with that, and for me, its charm wore off earlier than it should have. Perhaps with cleverer dialogue (come on, the thing has four credited screenwriters, including Ritchie, who we know can craft delightful British repartee), closer (or further) adherence to history, or a firmer grasp on either comedy or drama would have made this film more memorable.