Another
likely Oscar contender I’m crossing off my list early. Most signs point to Darkest Hour not racking up a ton of nominations, but Gary Oldman’s
performance as Winston Churchill is pretty much a lock for a Best Actor nod
with a good chance of winning (playing a real-life famous person in a movie
about WWII? Come on now.) It’s quite a serviceable, well-made biopic,
although Oldman’s performance is decidedly the chiefest draw.
The film
is a focused biopic rather than a general one, only covering about Churchill’s
first month as Prime Minister – from David Lloyd George stepping down up until
Dunkirk. When the PM steps down,
Churchill is a replacement choice not particularly prized by his party’s
leadership, and in his early days in the role, many have doubts about his place
there. In particular, as the German war
machine rolls across Europe, a number of Churchill’s colleagues are looking for
ways to avoid war while Churchill himself seems ready to steer the country
headlong into it. The clash builds to a
crescendo as British troops in France are stranded on the beaches of Dunkirk
with the Nazis closing in on them. The
fate of British army, and Churchill’s position, hang in the balance; all
depends on how Churchill deals with the crisis.
I know
enough of my history to recognize Churchill’s image and bearing, enough to know
that Oldman is terrific (as is the film’s makeup work – when I first saw a
trailer for the film, I didn’t realize it was him in the role until I saw his
name on the screen!) As the famous PM,
he’s irascible, wily, and clever, expecting everyone to fall in line with his
idiosyncrasies and not bending to pressure from dissenting voices in his war
cabinet. Even though we’re only looking
at a tiny sliver of his life, it’s one packed with conflict and upheaval, so
Oldman is given ample opportunity to show many sides of Churchill: cantankerous, muddling, exacting, sly, drunk,
stirring, despairing, determined, romantic, uncertain, and ingratiating, all as
the mood strikes or the situation calls for.
I know
also enough of the basics of Dunkirk to know how that story shakes out,
although I didn’t know the specifics of Churchill’s role within that or the
power struggles going on within his cabinet leading up to it. In general, I think the film does a pretty
good job of making that history accessible to the uninitiated while still
trusting that we don’t need our hand held to keep track of what’s going on.
Oldman’s
is the big money performance, but there are a number of other actors in the
film doing fine work. The film features
Kristin Scott Thomas, Lily James (it took me forever to place her with dark
hair – even though I knew none of
them were right, my brain jumped to Keira Knightley, Felicity Jones, and Daisy Ridley before I came around to
her,) Stephan Dillane (Stannis from Game
of Thrones,) and Samuel West (who I’ll always remember as the adult Caspian
from the old Voyage of the Dawn Treader
on PBS.) Special mention goes to Ben
Mendelsohn (Krennic from Rogue One)
as King George VI; after Colin Firth’s fantastic work in The King’s Speech, that has to be a tough role to take on, but Mendelsohn
does a great job with it, and his scenes with Oldman are some of my favorites
in the film.
Warnings
Language,
drinking/smoking, a little implied nudity, and war violence.
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