For the anniversary of D-Day, you could go to a showing of this ticking-clock thriller that is only suspenseful to those who haven't an inkling of the events that transpired seventy-three years ago on June 6. Director Jonathan Teplitzky ("The Railway Man") and writer Alex von Tunzelmann manufacture needless suspense for this historical drama when true events would more than suffice.
A nearly unrecognizable Brian Cox ("The Bourne Identity") is pitted against the indomitable Miranda Richardson ("The Crying Game," "Tom & Viv"), and the two labor to invigorate this waxen cadaver. John Slattery shows up as a willowy and platitude-reliant Eisenhower, who mistakes Churchill's concerns for the safety of his young countrymen as mere anxious snarls of the aging British Bulldog. With friends like that, who needs Hitler?
Photography by David Higgs ("RocknRolla") is beautiful but overworked, as are the politics—repeated warnings against the surge yet disconcertingly pro unmanned drone.