An entertaining mix of history, tosh and
tail. (Review by Patrick Compton - 7)
Christopher Plummer excels as Kaiser
Wilhelm II in this diverting, albeit highly unlikely World War II romantic
melodrama.
In the annals of history, Germany’s last
monarch, exiled to Doorn in Holland at the end of the Great War, deserves
little sympathy. An unpleasant anti-Semite, though not in the same league as
the genocidal Nazis, the erratic Wilhelm was simply not up to the job of ruling
his country and was responsible in large measure for Germany’s culpability in
bringing about the war. He was also something of a fantasist, believing the
monarchy could be restored under Hitler, a possibility that the Fuhrer and his
minions dismissed with contempt.
That is the historical background to this
movie which has been adapted by scriptwriter Simon Burke and director David
Leveaux from the novel by Alan Judd. A German officer, Captain Brandt (hunky
Jai Courtney), is detailed to head up the Kaiser’s security at his country
estate in Doorn shortly after Germany invades Holland in 1940. His job is to
protect Wilhelm in the light of reports that an English spy is sending
information out of Doorn which may lead to the former monarch’s assassination
or capture.
Grafted onto this thriller framework is a
sexy subplot that features an illicit relationship between Brandt and a pretty
maid in the Kaiser’s household. The exceedingly well-formed Lily James, who
plays Mieke the maid, is well-known to South African audiences for her role as
Lady Rose in Downton Abbey. Here, without giving too much away, she plays a
servant whose interests are not restricted to polishing the silverware.
Her sumptuously filmed affair with Brandt
certainly complicates matters when you realise that it is the largely
sympathetic German officer who is the incarnation of the film’s title.
Despite playing an unsympathetic character,
Plummer invests his role with such a degree of charm that, whatever our
objective thoughts about the Kaiser, we warm to him. He certainly comes out
shining during an important dinner party when his guest is the morbid head of
the SS, Heinrich Himmler, played with almost lurid understatement by Eddie
Marsan. Ten minutes of his company makes us want to take a shower.
This handsomely-mounted movie deftly
combines what we know of the historical record of the Kaiser’s exile with a
large dollop of melodramatic invention that sometimes forgets to make the
audience suspend its disbelief. Add to this the bedroom shenanigans and the
movie comes over as an entertaining mix of history, tosh and tail.
The
Exception opened in Durban on September 8. - Patrick
Compton
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