Jeremy Irons does have a tendency to showboat, said Kevin Maher in The Times – his “extravagantly accented” turn in House of Gucci being a case in point. Yet in this adaptation of Robert Harris’s 2017 novel, he brings “tenderness and subtlety” to his role as Neville Chamberlain.
Harris’s contention is that Chamberlain, long cast as a “hopeless negotiator”, was actually a clever strategist who, by signing the 1938 Munich Agreement, bought “the Allies valuable time for rearmament”. Set mostly at the conference, the film shows him caught between a “bellicose” Hitler (Ulrich Matthes), the “pressure for peace”, and the knowledge, ultimately, “that war is inevitable”. Irons delivers quite the turn as a “deeply humane” politician, “veering from irritable to imperious to occasionally bamboozled”; and his performance is nicely complemented by one from George MacKay, who features as a civil servant in a thrillerish fictional subplot about a plan to assassinate Hitler.
This “ingenious” film rattles along “easily enough” thanks to some “nice spycraft set pieces” and Irons’s twinkly performance, said Peter Bradshaw in The Guardian. And the fact that we know how it all ends is “no bar to enjoyment”. Yet Harris’s book might have fared better as a TV series, “in which characterisation could have been built up”.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Munich was directed by the German filmmaker Christian Schwochow, said Matthew Bond in The Mail on Sunday, and he has skilfully recreated the era. It’s just a pity the plot is so reliant on “clumsy plot twists”. Still, Irons is “an absolute joy”.
-
5 Post Office-approved cartoons about mail-in votingCartoons Artists take on reverse logic, Putin's election advice, and more
-
The battle of the weight-loss drugsTalking Point Can Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly regain their former stock market glory? A lot is riding on next year's pills
-
Sudoku medium: August 24, 2025The Week's daily medium sudoku puzzle
-
Ford Ranger Plug-in Hybrid: 'more than just a novelty'The Week Recommends Europe's first plug-in hybrid pickup is 'surprisingly agile'
-
6 lush homes in the treesFeature Featuring a glass house in Texas and a home built for a Broncos quarterback in Colorado
-
Brooklyn vs. the Beckhams: trouble in paradiseIn the Spotlight Scion of the Beckham clan and billionaire heiress wife Nicola Peltz staged an elaborate vow renewal – and none of his family were on the guest list
-
Alien: Earth – a 'bold' prequel to the space horror classicThe Week Recommends Set two years before Alien, new Disney show pays 'homage' to the original
-
Music reviews: Ethel Cain, Amaarae, and The Black KeysFeature "Willoughby Tucker, I'll Always Love You," "Black Star," and "No Rain, No Flowers"
-
Film reviews: Highest 2 Lowest and WeaponsFeature A kidnapping threatens a mogul's legacy and a town spins into madness after 17 children disappear
-
Book reviews: 'King of Kings: The Iranian Revolution' and 'Gwyneth: The Biography'Feature How the Iranian Revolution began and Gwyneth Paltrow's life in the spotlight
-
Garrett Graff's 6 favorite books that shine new light on World War IIFeature The author recommends works by James D. Hornfischer, Craig L. Symonds, and more
