A Call to Spy Movie Review - Being Anonymous

A strong subject and stronger women drive this period piece that takes time to rise.

Lydia Dean Pilcher, along with writer Sarah Megan Thomas dives into the beginning of World War II to fish out an incredible true story of three women fighting for their country. Following the orders of Winston Churchill, his spy agency - SOE (Special Operations Executive) - looks at recruiting and training female spies. The "spymistress" of SOE named Vera Atkins (Stana Katic, very good) includes two candidates: Virginia Hall (an affecting Sarah Megan Thomas) and Noor Inayat Khan (a committed Radhika Apte). Virginia wants to be a diplomat, but her disabled condition (she has a wooden leg) results in rejection letters. Noor is a pacifist, but she cannot let Nazis do what they're doing. These two are sent to France to damage the Nazi regime.

Beneath the horrors of war, valor, and a pile of dead bodies, A Call to Spy shelters an empowering account and sacrifice of overlooked women. War has been commonly associated with men. The word itself brings pictures of male soldiers steering guns and tanks. This one aspect is burned in our minds. On the other hand, somewhere in this noise, females helped in disruption by taking a stealthy approach. "Women will be more inconspicuous," Churchill remarks. Unfortunately, some became so obscure that the larger public is yet to know their names. Vera, Virginia, and Noor are examples.

A Call to Spy begins with a jumpy pace and maintains this tempo. The girls are hired, the girls are trained, the girls are sent on the mission. Everything happens so quickly you barely have time to register or take a breath. Of course, there is a war going on, and no time can be wasted for pretty sightseeing, but the quick movement impedes us to grapple with the characters instantaneously. Events occur while the viewer watches them unfold without any engagement. At certain points, there are diminutive moments of tension that touch and pass away like a breeze. The intention behind this fast pacing comes across as an attempt to build an edge-of-the-seat experience. From another angle, one can conclude it to be a fast-tracking process to move on to the main focus. After all, how many times do we need to see the usual training montage or start an unnecessary side romance or employ sequences showing lengthy schemes for executing a task? Whatever the reason, nothing works as expected.

During the last 30 minutes, my attitude changed, and I saw and accepted the film for its attempt. Somehow, that brisk pacing culminated in an emotional effect. I realized that A Call to Spy is not about facing small dangerous encounters but being exposed within a place where you think you are safe. Its fight is more personal, speaking about claiming the identity than just a conflict spanning countries. Patriotism, not rage, drives the characters in this film. A Call to Spy takes time to soar, but when it reaches there, you can't help but be moved by the determination of these women. Not ammunition; it's the loss of humanity that makes war so destructive. A Call to Spy is one of the few films which understands this.

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