SIX DAYS GONE BY

IZZARD LEADS CAMERA THROUGH ESPIONAGE

By PETER THOMAS BUSCH

It is, what it is, until it isn’t, is the narrative spin on the spy war genre adapted by director Andy Goddard for the true story of a finishing school for girls in pre-war England.

Goddard makes an intertextual reference by casting Judi Dench as the school’s head mistress, Miss Rocholl, in Six Minutes to Midnight (2021).

Dench was the spy master for London’s MI6 in the James Bond franchise films before being knocked off by a rogue agent.

Goddard only gives Dench a supporting role keeping a watch over the daughters of the Nazi elite.

Eddie Izzard plays the English teacher hired on short notice who becomes the center of the storm. Izzard does a good job holding the camera on him for most of the film with genuine, heart felt acting.

The narrative follows Izzard’s character, Thomas Miller, who is determined to find out what the girls know about British military defenses and whether they will try to leave for Germany with the information.

Carla Juri plays Ilse Keller, the teacher in charge of the girls etiquette and physical health. Juri plays the tech design genius, Dr. Ana Setline, in Bladerunner 2049 (2017) starring Ryan Gosling, Ana de Armas and Robin Wright.

Juri has this enchanting soft spoken voice that draws the audience into the scene however precarious the circumstances might be. Juri had an important part designing synthetic memories for the replicants in Bladerunner 2049, but she had very little screen time.

In Six Minutes to Midnight, Juri’s character is in charge of the minds of the daughters of the Third Reich 17 days before the breakout of World War II in 1939.

Goddard seems to keep the film on a linear path so as not to overshadow the nuances of the spy thriller unfolding at the Augusta-Victoria College at Bexhill-on-Sea on the English coast.

The film is a bit too straight forward though with a bit more work needed in every aspect of the film to make the story more suspenseful and more intriguing.

Jim Broadbent is cast well as the school bus driver that is aware but not as paranoid as everyone else. Broadbent receives little screen time though, and this under use of a talented actor symbolizes the problem throughout the film.

Goddard seems to have cut short the production when he should have explored everything a bit deeper, such as  by providing a backstory into the characters, the school and the pre-war relationship between England and Germany.

Miller arrives at the school seemingly when everything, including the declaration of war on Germany, has already been decided. Miller has little to do but put the pieces of the puzzle together as if he were the lead police inspector in a who done it mystery.

What production has made it to the film is good, but the narrative would have been much better with a longer runtime. The 99 minute film still makes for a good Sunday afternoon screening, though.