Director: Lydia Dean Pilcher
Writer: Sarah Megan Thomas (Screenplay)
Starring: Sarah Megan Thomas, Stana Katic, Radhika Apte, Linus Roache, Rossif Sutherland, Andrew Richardson
Plot: In the beginning of WWII, with Britain becoming desperate, Churchill orders his new spy agency – SOE – to recruit and train women as spies.
Runtime: 2 Hours 3 Minutes
There may be spoilers in the rest of the review
Story: A Call to Spy starts during World War II, The British have seen the German walk through Europe and with their latest attempts to create spies failing, Winston Churchill has decided to try bringing in women spies, with Vera Atkins (Katic) needing to select the first candidates, with American Virginia Hall (Thomas) and Noor Inayat Khan (Apte) being the ladies she turns too.
We see how the three women all played their part in the war effort, form different locations, one from guiding from home, another on the field, while the other using their communication skills to show that everyone is fighting for the same thing.
Thoughts on A Call to Spy
Characters – Vera Atkins is the woman that is painted to be like a secretary, but her work is much more than that, she helps recruit the first female spies, she knows how to pick the women that will not look the part, making them perfect for the selections, while running the operations from back home. Virginia Hall is an American that is trying to get into an diplomatic role for the country, only to be getting rejected, she is selected because of language skills and due to her injury, which makes her look even less spy like from the outside, she however is very smart, resourceful and always keeps her calm. Noor Inayat Khan is from a mixed background, she is an expect on the communication side of things, which sees her being selected to hide away from enemy and communicate back to England.
Performances – The performances from the three leading women are wonderful throughout, they show the strength they needed to bring the real life people to life, easily being the strongest part of the acting in this film.
Story – The story here follows the idea that in World War II, Britain looked to women to become spies to try and outsmart the Germans, we follow the first recruits as they risked their lives in the war effort and made history for their efforts. This is a brilliant look at the history of spies, seeing once again how many different people came together fight with what would be right. We see how some of the men wouldn’t be interested in letting women into the field, but we don’t seem to spend too much time covering this side of things. The only the other weaker side to the story comes from the fact we don’t seem to see how much intensity to any of the trading of material or attempts to rescue people.
Biopic – This biopic side of the film shows the women that risked their lives to help the country during the war, it shows more of their mission over their personal lives.
Settings – The film gives us the setting ideas to show us the secret places people would turn to for support in doing the right things.
Scene of the Movie – Recruitment.
That Moment That Annoyed Me – The spy side of things could be seen as routine, without many thrillers about it all.
Final Thoughts – This is an important look at how women become spies and helped changed things during World War II.
Signature Entertainment presents A Call to Spy in Cinemas and on Digital HD 23 October 2020
