A former secretary, newly appointed as a scriptwriter for propaganda films, joins the cast and crew of a major production while the Blitz rages around them.
During the London Blitz of World War II, Catrin Cole is recruited by the British Ministry of Information to write scripts for propaganda films that the public will actually watch without scoffing. In the line of her new duties, Cole investigates the story of two young women who supposedly piloted a boat in the Dunkirk Evacuation. Although it proved a complete misapprehension, the story becomes the basis for a fictional film with some possible appeal. As Cole labors to write the script with her new colleagues such as Tom Buckley, veteran actor Ambrose Hilliard must accept that his days as a leading man are over as he joins the project. Together, this disparate trio must struggle against such complications such as sexism against Cole, jealous relatives, and political interference in their artistic decisions even as London endures the bombs of the enemy. In the face of those challenges, they share a hope to contribute something meaningful in this time of war and in their own lives.—Kenneth Chisholm ([email protected])
1940. At the height of the Blitzkrieg, Luftwaffe's heavy bombers batter relentlessly the already war-bruised London. As a result, with nearly all of England's youth dispatched overseas to fight the Nazis and the morale slowly sapping, the Film Division of the British Ministry of Information decides to lift the public spirits. Determined to inspire the nation, the talented and assertive young copywriter, Catrin Cole, joins forces with the grouchy screenwriter, Tom Buckley, to encapsulate authenticity and add the finishing touches to a film project concentrating on the heroic Dunkirk Evacuation, with the aid of pompous actor, Ambrose Hilliard. Indeed, their cause is noble; however, will they manage to capture the public's imagination?—Nick Riganas
1940, France has fallen and Britain is suffering under the onslaught from Nazi Germany. Morale is low and the British Ministry of Information sets about producing propaganda films to lift spirits. A secretary, Catrin Cole, joins the Ministry as a junior writer and is soon thrust into the production of a major film.—grantss
During the Blitz of World War II, a female screenwriter (Arterton) works on a film celebrating England's resilience as a way to buoy a weary populace's spirits. Her efforts to dramatise the true story of two sisters (Lily Knight and Francesca Knight) who undertook their own maritime mission to rescue wounded soldiers are met with mixed feelings by a dismissive all-male staff.
The film is set in London in 1940. Catrin Cole (Gemma Arterton) is summoned to an interview at the Ministry of Information, where she is taken on to write script for short information films. Her husband Ellis Cole (Jack Huston) is a war artist, unable to get an exhibition and exempted from the call-up due to a Spanish Civil War leg wound - he is initially accepting of her job but when she becomes the only wage earner he begins to feel threatened and plans to send her back home to Wales, on the pretense of keeping her safe from the London Blitz.
After a clash with the actor Ambrose Hilliard (Bill Nighy) when he asks for a change to one of her scripts, Catrin's superiors instead send her to research a news story about twin sisters Lily and Rose sailing their father's boat to take part in the Dunkirk evacuation. However, on meeting them she discovers that they in fact had engine trouble just off Southend-on-Sea shortly after setting off and were towed back into port by a tug which had taken part in the evacuation and so were mistakenly reported as reaching Dunkirk themselves. At risk of losing her Ministry job and being sent back to Wales, Catrin lies to her superiors and they agree to make the film as "The Nancy Starling", with Catrin, Tom Buckley (Sam Claflin) and Raymond Parfitt (Paul Ritter) as the scriptwriters. They begin to write a scenario and - even when their superiors discover the deception - convince them to continue with its production as fictional film rather than a factual one.
Hilliard is offered the part of a drunken uncle named "Uncle Frank" in the film by his agent Sammy (Eddie Marsan). He initially refuses it out of pride but, after Sammy's death in an air-raid, he is reluctantly won over by Sammy's sister Sophie (Helen McCrory), who has taken over his agency work. Initial location photography begins but rapid rewrites prove necessary when an American character is added on the orders of the Secretary of War (Jeremy Irons) to give the film appeal in the USA. The Secretary also orders that the character be played by Carl Lundbeck (Jake Lacy), a handsome Norwegian-American pilot from one of the Eagle Squadrons who proves photogenic in silent film but unable to act in 'talkies'. The film is saved, however, by judicious editing and by Catrin convincing Hilliard to give Lundbeck acting lessons in return for improvements to Hilliard's part.
Catrin and Buckley develop a combative friendship and affection during the location filming, but the filming delays cause her to miss the opening of her husband's war art exhibition. Just before leaving to see the exhibition's final day, Catrin reveals to another member of the crew that she is in fact Ellis' long-term lover and not his wife, having only taken his name for the sake of propriety. She ran away with him and the ring she wears on her left hand is one purchased by her. On returning to their home in London, she finds Ellis having sex with a younger woman (Natalia Ryumina) and breaks up with him, returning to Devon. Buckley has found out about the nature of Catrin's 'marriage' and he proposes to her, but she refuses and they argue. Soon after arriving in London for interior photography, however, Catrin changes her mind and the two share a passionate kiss, just before a stagehand asks Catrin to come answer a query from Hilliard about rewriting his character. Buckley goes to answer it instead of Catrin, but on his way there he turns to look back at Catrin and is killed by a falling lighting rig. Lundbeck returns to his air squadron, leaving them with no-one to fix the propeller for the movie.
A more US-audience-friendly ending is added and a gap in the film is filled by Catrin's suggestion that one of the twins, Rose, fixes the boat's fouled propeller rather than one of the male characters - a change she had suggested from the very start. In shock and grief, Catrin withdraws from the world of film but a visit from Hilliard convinces her to return, in part to write him fulfilling parts such as a cat burglar air-raid warden, now that he has accepted that he can no longer play matinee idol parts. She attends a screening of her film and sees a clip of her and Buckley has been added to the ending. After speaking to two moved members of the audience, she sits down to write her next film.
