STREAMING REVIEWS: Travels with George
George MacKay will be best remembered as the lead actor in Sam Mendes’ 1917. Today, we have two film features that have MacKay as their lead actor. One is a historical drama set pre-World War II, while the second is a psychological drama indie film.
Munich: The Edge of War (Netflix) - A screen adaptation of the 2017 Robert Harris novel about the events leading up to World War II, this one pretty much stays faithful to the book. Harris is best known for his historical fiction, and his Fatherland perhaps being the best known, as he’s carved out a niche for himself, writing about the Second World War and Imperial Rome. Here, his focus is firmly set on the much-maligned and misunderstood figure of Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, who history has pretty much relegated as Hitler’s dupe, preaching appeasement and peace while Hitler was invading one country after another. But rather than have his novel become one just about Chamberlain, he creates the fiction of two bosom friends from Oxford time, one German, now both working in their respective Foreign Offices.
When we first meet Hugh (George MacKay), and Paul (Jannis Niewöhner), it’s 1932, and the Oxford May Balls. Years later, they secretly plot to avert war and try to keep the peace. Prime Minister Chamberlain is played by Jeremy Irons, and he’s actually the best thing in this film. While much is made of the efforts of Hugh and Paul, it’s a given that we all know they’ll fail and that war will come. So that pretty much puts true narrative suspense out of the picture, no matter how hard the screenplay tries. What is more interesting here is how this film may be one of the more sympathetic portrayals of Chamberlain that we’ll find. More than being shown as an outright fool, he’s shown as someone who sincerely wanted to keep and foster peace, but was just outfoxed and made irrelevant.
Wolf (Video On Demand) - Here, we have George MacKay in an indie feature that puts weirdness and suspension of disbelief as strong requirements to enjoy this film. The premise is simple but disturbing, that certain persons harbor very strong feelings that they’re in fact animals - it’s an extension of being born male but knowing you’re another gender and so on. So most of the film happens in a rehabilitation medical asylum, where treatment to eliminate this feeling is being done. There’s even a term for it, species dysphoria. As the lead actor, MacKay thinks he’s a wolf, and his love interest thinks she’s a wildcat (portrayed by Lily-Rose Depp). Paddy Considine plays the ‘warden’, as the film becomes an indie take of We’re All in the Cuckoo’s Nest.
Directed and written by Nathalie Biancheri, this is a psychological drama that fully depends on its bizarre premise to be a film to reckon with. There’s an earnest effort here, and I’ll give kudos to the director and the cast. But if there is something missing here, it would be shafts of sly humor to relieve the darkness of the subject. I’m reminded of one of the earlier films of Yorgos Lanthimos, The Lobster; and while the premise there was quite different - find your life partner within a prescribed time period or turn into an animal of your choice, there was a lighter feel to the already heavy subject, and that made such a difference for the audience’s enjoyment. Here, it’s done far too seriously, and I’d register that as my major criticism of the film.