Movie review: Nervous ticks of the clock abound in 'Six Minutes to Midnight'

There's always room for another cracking story of espionage pitting the British against the Nazis. This one, set in rural England, is the idea of comedian and actor Eddie Izzard, who stars - in a dramatic role - and cowrote the screenplay. Although some early publicity suggests the film is based on fact, only the setting is. Most of it takes place at Augusta Victoria College, a real (now defunct) girls' school in the seaside town of Bexhill-on-Sea. The fictional story that's played out comes from the mind of Izzard, who grew up in that town.

The film opens with what appears to be an intelligence operation gone wrong. Mr. Wheatley (Nigel Lindsay), a teacher at the school, is desperately searching a classroom for something that he hid, then makes his way to a phone where he anxiously tells someone, "The camera is missing. They know they're being watched." Wheatley vanishes. It's not until after his prospective replacement arrives at the school, the new English teacher Thomas Miller (Izzard), that Wheatley's body washes up on the nearby beach.