My, John Madden does make a film that moves. And he makes sure it moves - and he told us this himself - by rewriting the script always, though never taking the credit. This one comes from an Israeli film Ha-Hov by Assaf Bernstein and Ido Rosenblum, adapted by Matthew Vaughn, Jane Goldman and Peter Straughan. An inter-connected trio of Helen Mirren, Tom Wilkinson and Ciaran Hinds are celebrating the publication of a book (by her daughter) about their exploits in East Berlin in the 1960s when they manged to trap 'The Surgeon of Birkenau' and kill him when he tries to escape, a scene we see in flashback. But when we actually go back, the reality is somewhat different... and more complex in what happened and the relationships.
Jessica Chastain plays the young Helen Mirren (well), and her two fellow Israelis are Sam Worthington and Martin Csokas, and Jesper Christensen is rather good as the Surgeon. (I mean, it would have been tempting to just cut his throat and leave him in an alley.)
So yes, it's very engaging and thrilling and even leaves us on a knife-edge finish (and I mean that literally). You have to factor in German-born editor Alexander Berner, who does a splendid job of weaving it together, and Tom Newman, who gives us one of his trade mark percussive and driving scores, and Ben Davis for his considered imagery. (Does Tom play his own keyboards in his scores? I bet he does.)
It was because it had featured in the Helen Mirren documentary - I'd never heard of it. John said he wouldn't even consider taking the project forward unless Helen Mirren played the lead. And someone else - Matthew Sweet or somebody - that she gets to talk her native - well it's not her native tongue, is it, but her father's native tongue - Russian.
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