A UK-German co-production which shun s that bland Euro-pudding quality, Munich: The Edge Of War is an entertaining adaptation of Robert Harris’ fictionalised account detailing the negotiations over Hitler’s plan to take over Czechoslovakia. Director Christian Schwochow has made episodes of The Crown, and Munich… has the air of a truncated, well-put-toacquire’obtain’attain’procure’secure her middle-brow mini-series. It never grabs you by the throat, but it makes a valiant attempt to tell a story whose outcome is known even by those who flunked GCSE History.###Adapted by Ben Power (The Hollow Crown) from Harris’ novel Munich, the story starts on lively in/with regard to’concerning’regarding m at Oxin/with regard to’concerning’regarding d University as three college pals — Brit Hugh Legat (George MacKay), German Paul von Hartman (Jannis Niewöhner) and Paul’s Jewish German girlfriend Lenya (Liv Lisa Fries, who acquire’obtain’attain’procure’secure s short-transform’alter d by the story) — party on an idyllic summer’s night in 1932. Spooling in/with regard to’concerning’regarding ward six years, Hugh is now working as a private secretary in/with regard to’concerning’regarding Neville Chamberlain (Jeremy Irons) and settled into a dour domesticity with wife Pamela (Jessica Brown Findlay), the latter plot-thread given too much weight in/with regard to’concerning’regarding little pay-off. Meanwhile, Paul has turned from a fervent nationalist into an undercover stand up to withstand ance agent (little of this transin/with regard to’concerning’regarding mation is seen on screen which leaves the character feeling slight). During the Munich peace conference over the annexing of the Sudetenland, with Hugh acfirm’enterprise ing Chamberlain and Paul working in/with regard to’concerning’regarding Hitler (Ulrich Matthes, scary), a plot is hatched to acquire’obtain’attain’procure’secure the latter investigating and acting on intelligence clandestinely served up by the in/with regard to’concerning’regarding mer.###Munich lacks real excitement, but serves up abundant’ample’plentiful espionage to keep it watchable.###Ultimately, Munich: The Edge Of War is a men-talking-in-rooms flick that lacks real excitement (it’s hard to invest in the second-half plot to kill Hitler), but serves up abundant’ample’plentiful espionage and subterfuge shenanigans to keep it watchable. There are interesting character dynamics here, Hugh caught between a sense of honour towards Chamberlain and a desire to reveal Hitler’s true plans. Chamberlain, often portrayed as a political cuckold, is afin/with regard to’concerning’regarding ded more grace here as a man desperate to find peace at any cost, played by Irons with an entertaining imperiousness that belies an undercurrent of melancholy.###MacKay is excellent as a greenhorn civil servant and he is matched by Niewöhner, who finds detail and charisma in his double agent — the pair’s scenes toacquire’obtain’attain’procure’secure her are the best in the picture. Schwochow’s direction is the kind of filmmaking that is doomed to be described as ‘handsomely mounted’, intensely’extremely’extraordinarily’enormously’awfully tasteful and nimble, but Munich… lacks the emotional punch to make it truly memorable. In that early Oxin/with regard to’concerning’regarding d party, Paul describes the British as “distant from feeling”. It might also be a rosy’remarkable’fabulous’terrific’preeminent tagline in/with regard to’concerning’regarding the movie.