Close to the Enemy : German Braised Cabbage 🥁 🥁 🥁 1/2
/Year Released: 2016
Directed amd Written by: Stephen Poliakiff
Starring: Jim Sturgess, Freddie Highmore, August Diehl, Charlotte Rile, Alfred Molina Fox, Lindsay Duncan, Angela Bassett
(TV 14, 7 episodes approx. 1 hour each)
Genre: Post WWII Drama Mini-Series
“There is nothing I won’t do to make you cooperate.” Captain Callum Ferguson to a captured German engineer
This seven-part mini-series will get you through the winter storm, all right, but you may end up with cabin fever. Every intriguing moment has another that makes you want to pull your hair out.
And as one astute audience commentator says, Foyle’s War does it quite a bit better.
A British intelligence officer has to ensure that a captured German scientist helps the British develop jet aircraft.
But that task is far from simple. It is a stone thrown into a pond that washes waves of deceit, treachery, and love ashore. One wave splashes ashore only to be overtaken by a stronger one that crashes over it. And then there are the deep undercurrents of intrigue, hidden truths, and self-sabotage.
Which may remind us of this hypothetical letter showing that brevity is the soul of wit… and discipline:
Dear John,
I am writing you a long letter because I do not have time to write you a short one.
Closer to the Enemy, as well as many other mini-series, could certainly be edited down.
An astute viewer also has some other gripes. He really nails it, although I loved Alfred Molina, Angela Bassett, and Charlotte Riley. They have the charisma and acting chops, even if they don’t add too much to the plot, at least not until the final episode. Then Molina and Riley have more than presence; even a patch of honor and self-awareness, Here is what our viewer says:
Alfred Molina as a rather cryptic wealthy businessman (?) who knows which strings to pull and spends most of his time dining as well as he can given the rationing;
Angela Bassett as an African American jazz singer - why was she even in it?
Freddie Highmore as an annoying younger brother who should have been strangled at birth.
Various mysterious Germans as red herrings
A woman scientist/senior engineer working on jet propulsion who appears to be mixed race, possibly part African. Did they even have women working in such exalted positions, let alone mixed race in 1946?
Charlotte Riley as a wealthy American widow getting in everyone's way but used as the love interest; and the blond actress/prostitute living in the hotel getting in the Germans' way. The whole script needed tightening up by a good editor with red pencil and an eye for inconsistencies and holes in the plot.
The later episodes of Foyles War covered this same ground so much better. –Audience review
The lead, Captain Callum Ferguson (Jim Sturgess), plays the British Intelligence officer who uses unconventional methods to get the German Engineer (August Diehl) to help his enemies. Ferguson storms into the hotel kitchen to force the prissy staff to make their plain cabbage the German way with onions, butter, and garlic. That puts a smile on the face of the engineer’s daughter Lotte’s (Lucy Ward) and temporarily ends her father’s hunger strike.
The captured engineer and his daughter have every right to feel abused, given that they have been snatched from their beds and deposited in England in a very brutish way. In fact, a separate British faction wants to use even rougher tactics to sway the jet propulsion information from the engineer, but the captain is given a limited time to try softer methods.
As for our Captain Callum Ferguson, several fellow Englishmen are ruthless about Sturgess’s portrayal:
Jim Sturgess in the lead role lacks any form of charisma - he would be fine in a supporting role, but is appallingly cast here, and it has had a significant negative effect on the production. The character needs to be slightly larger than life and he is simply not.
They pick apart his accent, too, which is beyond the talents of this native American, but it is pretty funny:
Ferguson's “drawling accent is an affected mix of Canadian, Hibernian and public school,” they opine.
And his little brother, Freddie, played by Victor Highmore, supposedly neurologically affected from the war with what we would call PTSD today, really gets it, too. Some refer to him as Norman Bates, or “the disturbed brother who seems to have flown in from the 1970s.”
Different Drummer has to admit that Freddie got on her nerves as well, but he does almost redeem himself in the final episodes.
As a matter of fact, perhaps the whole series does that as well. Redeems itself near the end.
So don’t get discouraged early on as too many have. Keep going and you might find yourself hooked.
In Different Drummer’s opinion, a film’s ending can make or break it. Too often we see the latter, especially in mini-series. But the opposite happens in Close to the Enemy.
Check it out and see for yourself.
–Kathy Borich
🥁 🥁 🥁 1/2
Trailer
Film-Loving Foodie
Our captured German engineer will not help his British captors. In fact, when he goes his hunger strike, even the hotel’s white tablecloths, candlelight, and a host of waiters cannot persuade him to eat the unappetizing English cabbage put before him and his daughter, Lotte.
They want theirs the German way, warm with butter, onions, and garlic. This is almost a sacrilege to the staid waiter and kitchen staff. The maître d’ even refuses to consider it. So Captain Callum storms into the kitchen to force his will. And finally, they submit, making the delicious dish that soon becomes a favorite of many customers.
Lotte smiles. Her father eats. A beginning at least. Next, introducing the Jazz singer, aptly played by Angela Bassett. Will that thaw our icy engineer?
Enjoy this delicious dish and maybe a few other great German recipes as well. It might even warm an icy heart or two.
German Apple Onion Soup (The Soloist)
German Kompot Drink (Shining Through)
German Farmers’ Breakfast (Bridge of Spies)
German Braised Cabbage
While sauerkraut gets all the attention, this easy braised cabbage is a longtime favorite in southern Germany. It’s a simple way to use a head of cabbage, usually the green (or “white,” as we call it in German) kind, though savoy works too for a milder flavor. Either way, it’s one of the tastiest ways to enjoy this humble veggie. – Oma Gerhild
Ingredients
2 - 3 tablespoons (30-45 ml) olive oil or bacon fat
1 onion, sliced
3 tablespoons (38 g) sugar
1 garlic clove, crushed
½ large (500-600 g) green (white) cabbage, coarsely shredded
salt, freshly ground black pepper
1 teaspoon (2 g) caraway seeds
1 cup (240 ml) chicken broth
1 tablespoon (15 ml) white wine vinegar (to taste, optional)
Instructions:
1. In large skillet or Dutch oven, heat oil over medium-high heat. Add onions and brown slightly.
2. Stir in the sugar and part of the shredded cabbage. Continue to sauté over medium heat until some of the cabbage is browned as well.
3. Add the remaining cabbage, garlic, caraway seeds, and broth. Stir to scrape up any browned bits at the bottom of the pan. Season with salt and pepper.
4. Bring to boil and lower temperature. Cover and simmer on low heat for about ½ hour or until cabbage is tender, stirring occasionally and adding extra broth or water if needed.
5. Season with salt, pepper, and vinegar.
NOTES/HINTS:
To thicken sauce, dissolve 1 to 2 tablespoons cornstarch in a bit of cold water. Slowly add just enough to boiling liquid until thickened.
Use vegetable broth if you're making this vegan. Water can also be substituted for this.
You can substitute with apple cider vinegar, if you wish.
You can decrease or increase the cooking time depending on how 'tender' you like the cabbage.
Add a bay leaf, if desired.
