![]() MPAA rating: R, for sexuality, graphic nudity, language and brief violence. Is Mieke exactly who she seems, and is the captain exactly who he thinks he is? Or is he, as the title pointedly asks, an exception? Love during wartime has its inevitable complications, and the fact that they are familiar doesn’t make them any less welcome. Of course, there are complexities in that story as well. These and other World War II thriller aspects, including deception and even genteel references to torture, get more prominent as “The Exception” goes on, but the truth is the erotic chemistry between James and Courtney is so evident that it’s mostly what we care about. There are strong rumors that a British spy is active in the vicinity, the dread Gestapo orders the captain to keep tabs on the kaiser’s visitors, and there is even the chance that top Nazi Heinrich Himmler (Eddie Marsan) will pay a visit. Much more serious stuff of course is also taking place on the grounds. Who knew proximity to the kaiser could be such a powerful aphrodisiac? Von Ilsemann’s stern injunction that “female staff will not be interfered with.” The captain barks “take your clothes off” and the young woman immediately complies. No sooner do these two lock eyes, in fact, than they proceed to passionately ignore Col. Brandt, for his part, is bemused by the kaiser but more deeply interested in the fetching Mieke de Jong (James), a servant girl who is the newest member of Wilhelm’s household. Speaking of thrones, talk of politics could turn Wilhelm apoplectic in an instant, screaming in fury at being stabbed in the back by the military at the end of World War I and excoriating Hermann Goering as “that oaf” who had the temerity to come to lunch wearing Plus fours.Ĭapt. “A duck will never blame you for his troubles,” he says with conviction, “or ask you to abdicate your throne.” ![]() Wodehouse-first-edition-collecting elderly party who likes nothing better than feeding his entourage of ducks. Most of the time the kaiser is a genial, P.G. The actor-turned-lifestyle-influencer was accused of crashing into a fellow skier during a 2016 family trip to the upscale, skiers-only Deer Valley Resort in Utah. An actor who is always a treat to watch, Plummer brings alternating severity and warmth to the part of a man whose mood swings were head-snapping. Von Ilsemann (Ben Daniels) and his calculating empress, the Princess Hermine (the always excellent Janet McTeer).īoth of these people, and the kaiser himself, harbor the not exactly realistic hope that the former ruler will, if he plays his cards right, be called back to the German throne as “the physical manifestation of God’s will on Earth.”Īs played by Plummer, whose physical resemblance to the real man is remarkable, Wilhelm is way more interesting than his entourage. The kaiser is living on a splendid estate outside Utrecht, shielded from pedestrian concerns by a loyal coterie that includes his aide-de-camp Col.
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