The Exception (2017)

Too much of everything

Simply A Masterpiece

People are voting emotionally.

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

The Exception is a decent thriller about a British spy in the middle of German-occupied Holland. It's not horrible, and we didn't hate it. However, when you watch a movie like this, you get the perception that the Germans were a fine group of men with warm hearts. Brant disobeys orders more that he follows them. Like in many other movies where we are supposed to root for the cliched "good Nazi." It's not original any more. In real life, the Kaiser was a major instigator in WW1, but here he's just a sympathetic old man who did nothing wrong. The colonel who runs the Kaiser's household? Yet another Nazi who not only helps the enemy, but he helps a traitor (Brant) to help the enemy. You find out that a staff member is secretly Jewish? No problem, I can ignore my orders because you slept with me. Let's say you already suspect the maid is a spy. You know she has a gun because you smell the oil. You know she has secret meetings in town because you follow her daily. You know she is hiding the fact that she's Jewish. You know she has military training because she knows all about nazi medals and military ranks. All of these obvious clues, and yet you can't put 2+2 together? If only the real Germans had so many clueless and nice guys during WW2.

Every time I read twists and turns I am usually skeptical but I couldn't dismiss Christopher Plummer. He never disappoints and neither did this movie. Very good. Amazing talent portrayed by all of the main characters. Highly recommend.

It's 1940 Berlin. Army Capt. Stefan Brandt (Jai Courtney) is on the outs after an incident during the Poland invasion. He is sent to Holland to guard former Kaiser Wilhelm II (Christopher Plummer). He follows the victorious advancing German forces to find the former ruler bitter at his losses and his wife Hermine (Janet McTeer) eagerly pushing for the monarchy to be reinstalled. Colonel Sigurd von Ilsemann (Ben Daniels) is the chief of staff and Mieke de Jong (Lily James) is the new maid. Gestapo Inspector Dietrich is searching for a British spy suspected to be in the nearby village. The situation comes to a head when SS Commander Heinrich Himmler arrives to meet Wilhelm.It's an interesting wartime espionage film until Mieke essentially reveals her situation to Stefan. I assumed that she was playing him but apparently the movie was about her falling in love with him. I don't buy this central premise and that does irk me for the rest of the movie. In order to sell him as the Exception, the Poland incident really needs to be the first scene. The movie needs to make him the hero of the piece. I'm not necessarily a fan of Jai but that is all on the movie. Lily James does the best she can and there are some great veteran actors around. They make this better than its worth.

We all know they are a lot of movies about world war II, but luckily this approach it's not much exploted yet, so it's not the common storyline that we're used to it. The movie it's interesting from the beginning to its end with very good performances.