Movie Review: 'Six Minutes to Midnight'

England has been turning out some terrific spy movies lately. Recently, Benedict Cumberbatch brought the story of Greville Wynne, the most accidental of spies, to the big screen in the remarkable thriller, The Courier. Now, Eddie Izzard has brought another piece of English spy history to life in the new drama, Six Minutes to Midnight. This time, rather than the Cold War, we are back just before World War 2 with war between England and Germany inevitable and a group of school girls in the balance.

In 1939 an English boarding school was the home for daughters of some of the most powerful Nazis in all of Germany. High society Germans liked sending their daughters to proper English boarding schools to learn English and as a status symbol, paying to send a child to another country for schooling has the air of rich supremacy. Thus why there was a long running relationship between the rich and powerful German elite and a modest country boarding school.

This relationship thus takes a turn as England and Germany are approaching war. The girls of this seaside Boarding School suddenly become central to the struggle between these two powerful countries. England sees the daughters of the German elite as a bargaining chip to avoid war while Germany sees them similarly but as a liability more than anything. The Germans are prepared to secret the girls out of the country or kill them to keep them from falling into English hands.

Caught in the midst of the struggle is Ms. Rocholl (Judi Dench), the Boarding School proprietress. Her job is greatly complicated when one of her teachers is found murdered on the beach. That teacher also happened to be an English spy whose job it was to look after the girls and make sure that no one can get them out of the country, With this man’s death comes a replacement, Thomas Miller (Eddie Izzard), an Englishman of German descent, and a member of MI6.

Six Minutes to Midnight is a slow burn thriller filled with twists and turns. The story is real, it’s based on a real place that was a significant pressure point early in the War between England and Germany. Eddie Izzard and writing partner, Celyn Jones, who also co-stars in the movie, worked on bringing this story to the screen for several years before finally teaming with Downton Abbey director Andy Goddard to make it happen.

Goddard brings style and a pace to the story, he allows the big moments to linger and gain power while not slowing down too much or too often. This is a spy movie and keeping a pace is important to the thrilling aspect of a good thriller. There is a crispness to Goddard’s direction that suits the story being told. This isn’t a typically gritty spy story, it’s an upper crust, high end spy thriller and Goddard brings polish to the direction.

Eddie Izzard is not your conventional leading man, Izzard actually prefers She/Her pronouns, but he proves an ideal choice for Six Minutes to Midnight. Izzard has a natural, unforced charisma and while this is a rather muted performance from someone of Izzard’s personality, that charm still comes through. Izzard is clearly passionate about telling this story having co-written the film and that passion is clear in his intense and focused performance.

Six Minutes to Midnight does have a staid quality to it, that stiff upper lip English-ness does temper some of the excitement of the spy aspect of the story. That said, that’s not a terrible quality to have and certainly does not keep Six Minutes to Midnight from being quite entertaining. The film is especially good in the final minutes when the twists and turns of the characters involved take their final turn and everything culminates in a tense and deadly sequence.

Six Minutes to Midnight is available starting March 26th wherever streaming rentals are available and in select theaters from IFC Films.