Love and resistance.
The Exception is a 2016 romantic war drama directed by David Leveaux about the final years of Wilhelm II, the last Kaiser of Imperial Germany.
A war-scarred German officer by the name of Stefan Brandt (Jai Courtney) tries to determine if the Dutch resistance has planted a spy to infiltrate the elegant home of Kaiser Wilhelm II (Christopher Plummer) in The Netherlands during the onset of World War II, but falls for a young Jewish Dutch woman (Lily James) during his investigation. As the story progresses, Brandt is forced to re-examine his loyalties and make a fateful decision.
This movie contains the following tropes:
- Abdicate the Throne: In 1918, after Germany was forced to surrender in World War I, Wilhelm II abdicated the throne and fled into exile in Holland.
- Action Girl: Mieke it turns out is a Dutch resistance fighter, with a pistol she hid in her room she's very willing to use. She doesn't end up doing so, but is nonetheless a courageous spy who gathers information on the Germans at the risk of her own life.
- Adaptational Curves: Brandt is supposed to have seen combat, was severely injured by shrapnel and spent a long time recovering from his wounds. It's highly unlikely that he would have had Jai Courtney's well fed, extremely buff physique after going through those harrowing experiences.
- All Germans Are Nazis: Definitely not. Brandt is torn between duty to Germany and opposing Nazi antisemitism (first after seeing an SS massacre of Jews in Poland, then having an affair with Jewish woman Mieke). He ends up helping her against the Nazis. Wilhelm as well, despite being somewhat antisemitic, dislikes the Nazis, as does his aide (who mentions how many German Jews fought for Germany in the first world war).
- Ambiguous Ending: We never find out if the two lovers survived the war or if they were ever reunited.
- Babies Ever After: Mieke is heavily pregnant at the end of the film, with the implication that she is carrying Brandt's child, crowning the happy ending of them both escaping unharmed.
- Ban on Politics: Before being introduced to the former Kaiser, Captain Brandt is told by Sigurd ground rules about how to conduct himself, including to avoid discussion of politics.
- Benevolent Boss: Wilhelm is an extremely caring employer to Mieke, viewing her like a daughter. He noticeably overrules anyone who wishes to dismiss her for her affair with Brandt and just tells her to be discreet.
- Blue Blood:
- Colonel Sigurd von Ilsemann, Wilhelm's personal assistant, is from an aristocratic background like most German ranking officers were then.
- Brandt is also related to the Ludendorffs, another example, on his mother's side (Erich von Ludendorff was one of the generals who led the Germans during the first world war).
- Cannot Keep a Secret: Wilhelm receives news that he might become Emperor again. He and his wife agree to keep the information to themselves... only for both of them to tell their personal assistants...
- Cigarette of Anxiety: Brandt anxiously lights up a cigarette on learning Mieke's fellow Resistance fighter, a pastor, has been arrested and is being tortured for information by the Gestapo, knowing it's only a matter of time until he names her as a result.
- Cool Old Guy: Wilhelm is pretty cool in regards to Brandt and Mieke's affair, admitting he had multiple affairs himself many years ago, even fathering children with his mistresses. He just wants them to be a bit more discreet.
- Crapsack World: Brandt's father died before he was born in World War I, the Great Depression rendered his mother's money worthless and she died when Brandt was 12. He serves Hitler. Oh and he has to choose between love and duty.
- Cyanide Pill: Mieke has one which she's prepared to bite into if the Gestapo get her. Brands manages to get her away so it's unneeded.
- Deadpan Snarker: Wilhelm has a hell of a sharp tongue and dry wit, commenting he was once engaged in an affair with a countess and a prostitute. Both blackmailed him. He remarks he expected better only of the prostitute.
- Deception Non-Compliance: Brandt must go along with an SS deception that Hitler will allow Wilhelm to return to the throne. It's all a ruse to weed out monarchists in the Reich. He passes information about it to Mieke however, his lover who's in the Dutch resistance, while it appears that he's carrying out his duties to hunt her down.
- Do You Want to Copulate?: Not in so many words, but Brandt bluntly asks Mieke to undress while she's in his quarters, which she does with the obvious implication. She then has sex with him just as willingly. He later then suspects it's due to her being a spy with the Dutch resistance who believed this would be useful given that he's a German officer, though she denies it.
- The Dragon: Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler is described as Hitler's right-hand man.
- The Emperor: Wilhelm II was the Emperor (Kaiser) of the German Empire from 1888-1918 until the shame of the defeat of World War I caused him to abdicate and flee to Holland.
- Hair-Trigger Temper: Wilhelm has a short temper, understandable after more than twenty years of being blamed for Germany's misfortunes that weren't entirely his fault and having a crippled left arm his whole life. His adjutant Sigurd and his wife are worried that Wilhelm's temper exploding at Heinrich Himmler, head of the SS, will get him killed. They know this because Hitler had the former German chancellor Kurt von Schleicher and his wife killed in the Night of the Long Knives in 1934.
- Honey Trap: Brandt suspects this of his lover Mieke after she reveals she's with the Dutch resistance. Particularly it would make sense why Mieke had essentially leapt into sex with him, as he's a German officer. Mieke denies it however.
- Ignore the Disability: When being introduced to the Kaiser, Brandt is informed of Wilhelm's crippled left arm and told to not discuss it or look at it. When Wilhelm was born, a breech birth resulted in Erb's palsy, which left him with a nearly-paralyzed withered left arm about six inches shorter than his right. His left hand could still be used, as his left hand is seen gripping a bag of bread, it was just less useful than his right.
- Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique: The Gestapo torture the pastor who's in the Dutch resistance for information when he's captured. He eventually does give them Mieke, his accomplice.
- Living MacGuffin: Wilhelm's exile is the center of the story, with different factions (German monarchists, the Dutch resistance and Nazis) having their plots around him.
- Loved I Not Honor More: Subverted. Brandt is caught between his affections for Mieke and his duty to his country, though he chooses her ultimately.
- Making Love in All the Wrong Places: Brandt and Mieke have sex against a table in his quarters the first time (but he stops as his combat wound is hurting).
- Male Frontal Nudity: Brandt strips after Mieke asks him to, echoing his earlier request of her, and is naked from the front in a long shot.
- Maligned Mixed Marriage: It's unstated, but Brandt clearly knows that he and Mieke can never openly be together under Nazi rule, given he's an "Aryan" while she's Jewish. He carries on their affair anyway however (indeed, the Nazis made sex between "Aryans" and Jews a crime punishable by death, called "race defilement"). The ending implies they may manage to end up happily together with their baby after the war's end, though it's uncertain.
- Modesty Bedsheet: Mieke has a blanket around her chest post-coitus with Brandt once. It's downplayed however as in other scenes she does show extensive nudity before and after having sex with him.
- Mr. Fanservice: Stefan Brandt, a handsome, muscular German officer who gets several sex scenes, played by Jai Courtney. There's even some Male Frontal Nudity.
- Ms. Fanservice: Mieke de Jong is a lovely Jewish maid who strips naked in one of her first scenes and then has sex with Stefan Brandt multiple times. Both her breasts and her backside get long shots. She's played by the beautiful Lily James.
- My Country, Right or Wrong: Brandt wrestles with this, as a soldier in the German Wehrmacht. He feels that it's his duty to obey orders and serve, though he's against the antisemitic atrocities. Brandt tries to tell himself that most Germans in Nazi service aren't like that. His Jewish lover Mieke, though, convinces him that he's the exception, while most aren't. As a result, he accedes to helping Mieke strike at the Nazis, coming to believe that it's best for his country instead of serving an evil government.
- Nazi Nobleman: Wilhelm's wife and staff are hopeful that Hitler or someone in the Nazi government in Berlin will bring about the restoration of the monarchy and give Wilhelm his throne back and actively collaborate with the German military/SS.
- Offered the Crown: Twice. Wilhelm is offered his throne back by both Himmler (though this is a ruse to weed out monarchists) and by UK's Churchill.
- Plagued by Nightmares: Brandt has recurring nightmares of a civilian massacre perpetrated by the SS in Poland, and feels guilty he could not save a little girl who had survived the initial onslaught of bullets.
- Ransacked Room: The Germans search the entire house the day before Hitler's SS chief Heinrich Himmler comes.
- Regal Ruff: Wilhelm might no longer be Emperor, but he still dresses the part (obvious from his closet supply), especially in front of guests and his Wehrmacht bodyguards.
- La Résistance: Mieke and the local pastor in a nearby village both are with the Dutch resistance. He has a radio transmitter to communicate with the British, she's in the household of the exiled Kaiser Wilhelm.
- Revenge: Mieke is a Dutch Jew whose husband and father were both murdered by the SS. She naturally wants revenge, and works with the Dutch resistance. After SS chief Heinrich Himmler comes to visit her employer himself, Mieke sees her chance by shooting him, though her superior says not to unless it's approved. This ultimately doesn't happen though since Mieke is exposed, being forced to flee.
- Riches to Rags: Wilhelm II was once a powerful emperor of Germany but now is living in shamed exile. He still has money and uniforms (so less rags), but he is but a shadow of his former glory.
- Rightful King Returns: Wilhelm hopes that Hitler will restore the monarchy and give him his throne back.
- Ruling Family Massacre: Wilhelm mentions to Mieke that his cousin Ella, his first love, and her Imperial Russian family were murdered by the Bolsheviks during the Russian Civil War.
- Secret Police: The Geheime Staatspolizei (literally "Secret State Police", aka the Gestapo) are Nazi Germany's secret police, who serve as the main antagonists in the film.
- Sheltered Aristocrat: Wilhelm has spent the last 20 years living in exile in Holland. The arrival of the German Army gives him hope. His wife says, given his very wealthy background as the former emperor of Germany, he knows little of money and doesn't realize just how reliant they are on the German government, which gives them a pension (that could be taken away at any time).
- Slut-Shaming: Hermine says Mieke is a common slut when she's caught with Brandt in her room, and must be dismissed from their service. At least she's even-handed enough to say Brandt disgraced his uniform doing this too.
- Smoking Hot Sex: After they have sex once, Mieke and Brandt smoke the same cigarette together.
- Still the Leader: Wilhelm reminds his wife that he makes the decision of the Huis Doorn household.Wilhelm: I may not rule in Germany, but, by Christ, I rule in my own house!
- There Is a God!: Wilhelm says "Perhaps God hasn't forgotten me, after all." when he's Offered the Crown of Germany once again, after previously having speculated there were inscrutable divine reasons behind his misfortunes.
- Title Drop: "They are the rule. You are The Exception."
- Truth in Television: Early in the beginning of the war, the Wehrmacht did indeed despise the Einsatzgruppen of the SS, considered them cowards for shooting unarmed civilians and called for their disbandment. It didn't last unfortunately, but Brandt's reaction to the SS crimes is perfectly plausible.
- Try to Fit That on a Business Card:Sigurd: Prince Friedrich Wilhelm Viktor Albrecht von Preussen and his wife, Princess Hermine Reuss von Greiz.
- When Harry Met Svetlana: Mieke is a widowed Jew spying on behalf of the UK and Captain Brandt is a German officer.
