It would be wrong to even infer that Brit filmmakers ever play down the sheer atrocities that occurred during WW2, but there is definitely a whole platform of them who somehow make their war dramas seem almost like a squabble between gentleman that has somehow got out of hand.
The Exception is very much in that vein and with its healthy mix of some facts and a great deal of fiction, it is the tale of the German Kaiser who had been exiled to a rather delightful large country house in Holland. However since the Nazis had now invaded the Netherlands, the elderly ex-monarch was suddenly within their reach again.
Kaiser Wilhelm II (a splendid Christopher Plummer) was still bitter about having had to abdicate after he was blamed for Germany losing WW1, and he still insists on speaking his mind about Hitler’s regime even though it could have serious repercussions for him now. On the other hand his younger wife Princess Hermine (a steely Janet McTeer) is happy to kowtow to the loathsome Nazi leadership thinking that that they can be persuaded to allow them to one day regain the throne.
The authorities in Berlin now send Army Captain Stefan Brandt (Jai Courtney) to come and takeover the royal couple’s security, and fortunately the Kaiser takes a shine to the charming young officer, although not on the same level as Mieke (Lily James) one of the housemaids who is more than happy to jump into his bed on the first night.
There are no major surprises in the plot that follows and when the local Gestapo advise that there is British spy working in the village, it doesn’t take long for us, or Capt. Brandt to work out who it is, but by then he is already too smitten with her and rather than proposing he hands her over to the Inspector, he proposes marriage instead.
Things properly come to ahead when they hear that Himmler (Eddie Marsan), Hitler’s deputy, is coming to pay the household an official visit, Princess Hermine thinks this will be the perfect opportunity for them to be asked to return to Germany as the Monarchs, whilst Mieke thinks that this will be her chance to get rid of Hitler’s right-hand man. History of course tells us that neither women got their way, but that didn’t get in the way of the telling of this rather entertaining drama.
Plummer plays the rather grand aristocratic Kaiser as an elegant gentleman, and although his proudest possessions seem to be an enormous room bedecked with his enormous collection of military uniforms, but he seems to get equally as much pleasure feeding the ducks on his pond everyday. It’s all a far cry from the war-mongering Emperor that led his country to battle some thirty years previously, and a whole world removed from the uniformed thugs running the current war.
The movie is the feature directing debut of 5 time Tony Nominated British stage David Leveaux who brings a real theatrical sense to this rathe impeccable period piece. It benefits from some really good casting choices and although Australian Courtney and Lily James who have an electric chemistry, this is very much Plummer’s picture as he is every inch a grand old man. It’s odd to think that his breakthrough role at the start of his career should be as Captain Von Trapp the Austrian army officer intent on defying the Nazis, and here he is decades later still defying them for totally different reasons.
