Operation Mincemeat (2022) tells the true story of the British intelligence plan to deceive Nazi Germany during World War II by planting false documents on a corpse. The historical operation itself is clever and consequential, yet the film fails to maintain the tension that made the earlier film adaptation of the story The Man Who Never Was (1956) superior. This weakness is due to the absence of a suspenseful subplot the 1956 film had.
In The Man Who Never Was, the character Patrick O’Reilly (a German agent sent to London to find out if the British are planning a deception or not) transforms the narrative from a procedural TV-style detective “whodunit” into a tense thriller. The viewer experiences the operation not just as a dry outlining of a strategy but as a dangerous gamble. If O’Reilly discovers the deception, the entire Allied plan could collapse. This subplot gives the story a palpable, almost Hitchcockian suspense, grounding the abstract stakes of espionage in real-time danger. Without it, the tension becomes theoretical rather than real.
The 2022 film, though historically accurate, focuses mainly on the War Cabinet’s planning and the interpersonal relationships between the characters, who are largely uninteresting. Also dialogue-heavy scenes dominate the film, and whilst attempts are made to move the story beyond office walls, the film largely remains a series of meetings, briefings and document exchanges. Any suspense relies entirely on the waiting game: will the Germans believe the ruse? This results in what is essentially a “1970s British television play” with a big budget.
Some have defended this choice by emphasising historical accuracy. No German agent actually came to London to investigate. Yet good storytelling requires more than strict adherence to fact; it also requires tension and conflict. In the 1956 film, artistic license produced a story that was gripping. Operation Mincemeat, however, leaves the viewer watching a clever plan unfold with limited emotional investment.
The result is that viewers wanting the thrill of espionage might find the film monotonous.
