During the opening stages of World War II, a Jewish maid
(Lily James) working in the Netherlands household of exiled German Emperor
Wilhelm II (Christopher Plummer) spies on him for the British, then both confounds
and cavorts with the Wehrmacht officer (Jai Courtney) dispatched to ferret out
the espionage. There's a gratuitous quality to their romantic encounters. But
director David Leveaux's screen version of Alan Judd's 2003 novel "The
Kaiser's Last Kiss" quickly returns to the conventions of a historical
thriller. The result is an exceptionally well-crafted, gloriously over-the-top
piece of kitsch.
Watch out for: Brief
graphic nonmarital sexual activity with flashes of male and female nudity, fleeting
rough language.
Rated: L, limited adult
audience, films whose problematic content many adults would find troubling;
MPAA: R
© Arlington Catholic Herald 2017