Dame Judi Dench, Eddie Izzard, Jim Broadbent, do I need to say anymore? Okay, okay. Think, well behaved St Trinian’s girls school meets Miss Marple, then base the story on true events in Britain, 17 days before WWII. What starts as a simple study of German youth, turns into an intriguing who-dun-it where no one can be trusted.
The Augusta-Victoria College, Bexhill-on-Sea is a finishing school for young ladies situated on the south coast of England. There a group of 20 girls are learning the important things in life, things that will make them upstanding German women. You know, things like walking around a room with a book on your head. The school is run by headmistress Miss Rocholl (Dame Judi Dench), with lessons taught by her assistant Ilse Keller.
But these students are no ordinary girls. They are the daughters of influential families in Nazi Germany. Hence, along with Shakespeare their lessons include instruction on how to be good members of Hitler’s League of German Girls. With war brewing the girls become highly prized commodities.
In the summer of 1939, while the girls are exercising on the beach, one of them comes across the body of a former teacher. Naturally this comes as somewhat of a shock, not just to the girls, but also for English teacher Thomas Miller (Eddie Izzard) who has only just arrived at the school.
When Miller sets out to unravel the mystery it becomes clear that no one is who they seem to be. To tell you anymore would be giving the game away.
As the final scenes played out I pondered:
- Amazing to think this was based on true events;
- Izzard puts in a solid performance albeit with a lot of running. Just as well he had all that preparation through his many marathons;
- Dench makes a good headmistress;
- The best part of the movie was the cinematography, with interesting angles adding weight to the characters.
. For more information go to Luna Cinema
-
overall
