A Call to Spy

Loved the three female leads - each brought a lot of texture and depth to the screen. Also, so grateful to know about these amazing women in WWII! They should be common knowledge - so thank you to the filmmakers for educating us in an entertaining way!! Great movie!!!

This succeeds in highlighting the important (and often under-looked) true story of female spies in WWII. I was already familiar with Vera Atkins and Virginia Hall and it was nice to see their stories put to film. It was great learning the heroic story of Noor Inayat Khan too. "A Call To Spy" is the kind of film that gets you researching the true events after. More people should know about these women.

As a film itself, it definitely had a TV-movie vibe. The script was rather woeful at times and occasionally the acting came across quite wooden. It still did enough to tell the stories though, while keeping my interest. I would have thought a film depicting the heroic actions of spies in WWII would have more tension and better pacing though.

It felt a bit too long at times, and during the first 20 minutes, I wrestled whether to abandon it entirely. I felt the story of these women deserved my time though, so I persisted and I'm mostly glad I did.

Sarah Megan Thomas delivered a particularly good performance as Virginia Hall. You could easily tell she was passionate about this film and the story of these women. Stana Katic had great chemistry with her too.

A few months ago I watched the reality docuseries "Churchill's Secret Agents: The New Recruits", which depicted the SOE in WWII. I highly recommend watching that series before watching this, as it gave a fantastic education and background to the roles of these brave men and women. As a movie? "A Call To Spy" is rather lacklustre and has its share of shortcomings. As a story? Everyone should know about it.

The main reason for seeing 'A Call to Spy' was the subject matter, a powerful one made up of the true stories of three inspirational but somewhat overlooked women who worked as spies in the second world war. Being someone who has a thing for promising concepts and bold subject matters. Also like historical dramas, films inspired by or based on true stories and anything centered around spies also intrigues. Not to mention the cast.

'A Call to Spy' was a solid and laudable effort in making the women and their stories known in cinematic terms. It doesn't quite succeed in every area and the women's stories were more powerful than the one that is presented here, but there was also a lot to like about it and it was hard to not admire its good intentions. There was a great film somewhere in 'A Call to Spy', a great one that doesn't quite materialise but has elements of greatness in individual components, but to me it was not a waste of potential.

Like has been said above, 'A Call to Spy' has a lot of good. The best thing about it is the acting, the standout being the committed, determined and heartfelt performance from Sarah Megan Thomas. Stana Katic is a forceful presence too and the chemistry between the two is done with a lot of sincerity and respect. Linus Roache and Radhika Apte bring a lot of dignity to their roles. The rest of the cast are fine, with the enemy being portrayed as genuinely sinister and the film doesn't shy away from showing the horrors of what they did.

It is a good looking film, handsomely and atmospherically shot with a good eye for period detail that doesn't look too clean, the French scenes looking suitably uncompromising. The music has a nice mix of emotions and isn't overused or over-emphasised. The film is directed with a lot of committment and heart, it is easy to tell that the subject meant a lot to the director and all involved. The scripting on the whole is thoughtful and well intended, while the story has enough tension and poignancy (though there could have been more of the former).

Didn't think the storytelling or the film were perfectly executed though. There are too many cliched supporting characters and most of them are given too much short shrift. Khan is rather underdeveloped which is a far cry from the meaty character writing of Hall and Atkins and her fate was actually even more harrowing than presented in the film.

Some of the French dialogue is stilted and there are lulls in pacing where the action is a little too over-deliberate and relies too much on talk. Particularly early on.

Overall, solid effort. 7/10.

The BBC, in their wisdom, covered this same topic as a series (1987-1990) called Wish Me Luck - a very well-made drama centered on the work done by civilian volunteers for the SOE in WWII France. I watched it on Amazon a year or so back but it is now currently unavailable to stream. If it ever does come back, watch it perhaps in conjunction with this movie and the other movie people have mentioned in their reviews (Female Agents) which I have yet to see.

This movie, "A Call To Spy", is inspired by real events and real allied spies in World War Two. It was the early 1940s, the German Nazi threat was nearing its height, the allies needed to do something bold and surprising. Churchill requested a secret army of attractive female spies be created to conduct sabotage and build resistance in occupied France.

This is the story of those spies and how they were trained, how they went about their missions. The movie is very authentic looking and the mood is just right. The story focuses on Virginia Hall who was a real spy and whom the Nazis considered the most dangerous of all Allied spies. Most of the actors are people I have never heard of which I believe adds to the impact, not being distracted by an actor's fame or prior roles.

Good movie, a nice addition to the WW2 stories. My wife and I watched it at home on DVD from our public library.