It's 1939 in the UK and only 17 days before World War II begins, an English teacher disappears from a coastal boarding school which has 20 German teenage girls attending, Thomas Miller gets the job six days later and secretly tries to find out what really happened.
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Ever since being in Primary School and learning about the second world war I have quite an obsession with it, partly because my grandparents lived through it with both of my Nanna's being evacuated to the country. That has continued over the years and I really do still love learning about different events that happened during WWII that they did not teach you at school. This film being based around a boarding school that taught German teen girls is certainly very different and not something I had ever heard about before.
Adding all of that in with spy themes was surely something that would be extremely entertaining? Well, that is what I had hoped before watching Six Minutes to Midnight and finding out what that title meant. Yes, I found out that meaning but unfortunately the film is a little bit dull. I am not really sure how you manage to do that with such an interesting plot and backstory. also anything with spies is something that is usually very good.
Something it did manage to do was highlight just how difficult it was for spies to actually know or believe who else as a spy, that is something we have seen a lot over the years. It makes me think about how dangerous that lifestyle was and never actually knowing if you are working with the good guys, for your country or against it! I would have liked to see more of that explored within the film and what the girls really had to do with all of that.
Miller posing as a teacher seemed to be the perfect cover so he could find out who was then a German spy within the school. Something as a viewer we see early on as it is not really kept a secret in that sense. Maybe if that had been more hidden from us watching it could have created more tension? Miss Rocholl is oblivious to the things going on around her and the girls, she cares for them and nothing will really stop that.
The cast that was put together for the film was led by Eddie Izzard who also was one of the writers, so that confirms it to be somewhat of a passion project. Judi Dench is always dependable and she was believable enough in her role. Jim Broadbent with a smaller role was also welcomed with Carla Juri and Maria Dragus the standouts from the supporting cast.
In what really could have been a highly entertaining film I was left rather bored from start to finish, which was a shame as I really did try hard to like it!
