When a director decided to use World War II as the main subject, the range of possibilities is quite big. You can bring so many elements: love, betrayal, action, drama, survival, etc. On the other hand the subjects about World War II are very sensitive, specially if you talk about the Nazi Germany.

“The Exception” tells the story of German soldier Stefan Brandt (Jai Courtney) a very trouble person with a turbulent past. Brandt is sent to Netherlands to protect as a personal bodyguard of a Kaiser, German Emperor Wilhelm (Christopher Plummer) who is been exiled for quite a while.

The main concern from the Germans is after the invasion of Netherlands, dutch spies are watching the Kaiser with the idea of finding information about the German army movement. A maid name Mieke de Jong (Lily James) meet Brandy after his arrival and start a steamy affair, becoming dangerous at the time, because is risky for both of them, but also Brandt suspicion of Mieke been the Dutch spy.

“The Exception” is a great film with a perfectly build cast lead by Christopher Plummer, the movie, besides been based from a novel, could be easily confused with a real story from World War II. The production values of the film shows how carefully the director work with production design to make it look believable. The camera work is well done.

On the other hand the film is very slow sometimes and melodramatic. But I praise the work of David Leveaux as a first director for this movie.