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Well, folks, it’s about that time at last. The blockbuster season is almost over and my favorite movie season, the best movie season, is about to begin: Oscar season. You know, that time when all the “big” movies come out that are going to be vying for awards attention throughout the remainder of this year? Yeah, I’m excited too, hypothetical reader, so I decided to treat myself to one of the first of these films and saw the World War II-era thriller Anthropoid. Is it going to go for the gold (timely Olympics reference FTW) or is it going to be forgotten? Let’s find out.
Anthropoid tells the story of a group of Czechoslovakian spies, led by Jozef Gabčík (Cillian Murphy) and Jan Kubiš (Jamie Dornan), that arrives in occupied Prague in 1942. Sent by the exiled government in London, their mission is to assassinate the man currently in charge of the city: Reinhard Heydrich, the third-highest Nazi in the German government (behind Hitler and Heinrich Himmler, the leader of the SS) and the architect of the Final Solution. As preparations get underway and wheels are set in motion, things become incredibly dangerous and challenging as the SS steps up its presence in Prague, putting both the spies and the entire citizenry in incredible danger that none of them might survive.
I came into this movie completely cold, knowing only that it was set in World War II and that the guy who played Scarecrow was in it, so I was pretty taken with the film as it unfolded. I have never heard of the director, Sean Ellis, before, but after this I will definitely be keeping him on my radar. He gets to run the gamut of scenes here, shooting large, expansive shots along with tight, claustrophobic scenes, along with romantic scenes, action scenes, brutal scenes, and so on and so forth. That’s a lot for a director to do in such a small film, but he handles them all like a pro, and nothing ever feels like it doesn’t belong.
One thing this movie definitely has going for it are the two leads, who are both fully-realized and sympathetic characters that go through quite a few changes over the course of the film. I’ve always liked Cillian Murphy as an actor, but he’s usually been relegated to a supporting role in big budget movies. Here he really gets to shine as an actor, playing an ultra-patriot that is determined to assassinate Heydrich by any means necessary, only to have his views challenged by his growing attachment to the town and, in particular, the fiery redhead Lenka (Anna Geislerová). Once things shift into high gear he really faces a huge challenge and nails it even behind a Czech accent, which is not easy to do!
Jamie Dornan was someone I’d been interested to see, especially after the disaster that was Fifty Shades of Grey (he was the creepy billionaire stalker Christian Grey in that), and I was very impressed. Jan is conflicted right out of the gate, clearly unfit for the job of a soldier unlike his partners. He grows attached to the maid of the family he stays with in Prague, the lovely Marie (Charlotte Le Bon) and wants to abandon the mission to be with her, but the film doesn’t treat him like a coward or a loser. He clearly understands the consequences of what they want to do and has grown attached to this life he has created undercover, knowing that the Nazis could raze Prague to the ground at any minute. His arc is the exact reverse of Josef’s, though, making for an interesting comparison between the two.
The absolute best thing about this film is the way that it builds tension, taking every single minute of this film and using them to ratchet things up before it explodes. The film starts out slow, almost glacially, but these scenes are important in establishing the characters and their connections to one another. Somewhere in the second act, though, the pace quickens and things get really intense to the point where I had gone from reclining back to being on the edge of my seat. That’s a brilliant filmmaking tactic right there, folks, and it shows just how well-crafted this movie really is. These are all technical terms that film geeks like me like to use, but it’s important for me to say that this isn’t just some Oscar movie that five people will like and everyone else will find boring, though. There’s plenty to love here for everybody, especially people who love World War II stories.
On the negative column, I have to admit that when I say the first part is slow, I mean it is SLOW. They really take their time setting up these relationships, holding the camera on establishing shots a little bit too long and taking awhile for anything that seems consequential to happen. I give this a bit of a pass because it all matters later on, but it is not the easiest thing to get through.
It’s ironic that the week after a film called Suicide Squad released (read my review here), a film about a real-life suicide squad comes out that blows it completely out of the water. Anthropoid is one of the most intense films I’ve seen this year, with a siege that rivals my beloved Green Room, and it tells the important story of wartime heroes that I think is the antidote for the boring, generic summer action films we’ve been getting for the past several months. If you want to go see a good film, then please go and see this before it gets yanked out of the theaters. This is the film that deserves your support, and I don’t think you’ll regret it.
My Rating: 4.5 stars out of 5
Anthropoid is now in theaters.
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