Director: Sean Ellis
Cast: Cillian Murphy, Jamie Dornan, Harry Lloyd, Charlotte Le Bon, Toby Jones, Sam Keeley, Bill Milner, Anna Geislerová
Rating: 15
Running Time: 120 mins
Release Date: September 9th, 2016
War films aren’t exactly a commodity in cinema, but ones that show nuance and a willingness to allow its characters to breathe are – all too often action replaces depth, explosions traded for story. ANTHROPOID benefits from its unconventional writer/director Sean Ellis, who’s best known for indie flick CASHBACK, and the talented cast he has assembled. The always reliable Cillian Murphy and Jamie Dornan star as two soldiers plotting the assassination of SS General Reinhard Heydrich, the Reichs third in command after Hitler and Himmler. While planning what is most likely a suicide mission, the two are given cover as men looking for work and are joined by Marie (Charlotte Le Bon) and Lenka (Anna Geislerova), two girls involved with the resistance who pose as their girlfriends. As expected, the mission draws everyone closer – relationships develop and as the day of the assassination arrives, tensions are high.
ANTHROPOID’s best asset is what might put off most people – with a good two hour runtime, the film takes its time setting things up and developing its characters; Murphy is outstanding as a loyal soldier ready to do whatever it takes to get the job done, and his slow, subtle relationship with Lenka is beautifully understated. Murphy gets many scenes to shimmer with intensity but its when he allows it to pour out towards the end of the film that the tragedy of his character is revealed. Likewise, Dornan is given an emotional arc as a soldier who, perhaps more realistically, is scared. Whenever handed a gun, his hand shakes and his nerves give way to bouts of panic attacks but he finds stability and comfort in Marie – his childlike innocence and hopefulness a brilliant contrast to Murphys’ discipline and military persona. While Marie doesn’t get developed much beyond a love interest role, Lenka is more than capable in keeping up with our main men – Geislerova gives a memorable performance, giving Lenka a capable and resilient personality.
The film purposely takes its time, getting the audience to really care about our central characters and the heavy weight that bares on them. It doesn’t offer any easy answers either – whether these men were right in trying to carry out their mission or not is a question the film presents to the audience, letting them find their own conclusion. Through Dornan’s character, the film grapples with the right and wrong of war, the necessary evil of taking a life or sometimes sacrificing them. Thanks to Eliss’s direction, the film is shot beautifully and the tension never subsiding from the very beginning – especially in the aftermath of the mission.
For all the films pondering on war and its necessities, its development of its characters and caring about them, the film wouldn’t work without its final third act, where the fighting explodes out into the streets and culminates in a stand off in a church. ANTHROPOID might develop into a similar film you have seen before but its emphasis on character and a slow burning feeling of tension, plus some terrific acting, means its a lasting impression.
Verdict
