Rating: 3.5/5
Classification: PG
Year of release: 2017
Run-time: 2 hours 5 minutes
Director: Joe Wright
Cast: Gary Oldman, Lily James, Kristin Scott Thomas, Ben Mendelsohn
Genre: Drama
This review contains spoilers
Darkest Hour is about the true story of one of the most influential figures in British politics, Prime Minister Winston Churchill (Gary Oldman) taking place at the beginning of World War II in the year 1940 and chronicles whether or not he decides to agree to a peace treaty with Adolf Hitler and the Nazis or fight them against them with very little chance of victory. It’s hard to believe that a talented actor like Gary Oldman has only two Oscar nominations to his name including for this film, but thankfully this is about to change because with the Academy Awards less than a month away I strongly believe he will win an Oscar for his performance in this film. Gary Oldman is unrecognisable and this is one of those performances where an actor completely disappears into his or her role, Ben Mendelsohn also plays King George VI and some of you may remember him from The King’s Speech (2010) where he was also memorably played by Colin Firth, nevertheless King George VI obviously doesn’t have as much screen time as he did in The King’s Speech but the scenes involving both him and Churchill were very interesting to watch.
Darkest Hour is not a biopic of Winston Churchill’s entire life but merely how he was chosen to be Prime Minister, the movie only takes place in the space of a year and can be viewed as a companion piece to Dunkirk (2017) it’s a great coincidence that these two films came out within a few months of each other. But while Dunkirk shows the war aspect of the event Darkest Hour shows what happened on the political side of the event, because Winston Churchill’s decision to fight against the Nazis very much revolves around the attack on Dunkirk. At the beginning the film conveys very well about how and why Winston Churchill wasn’t everyone’s first choice as Prime Minister, Churchill had plenty of naysayers for sure proving that no one should judge a book by its cover and even if you underestimate certain people they may end up surprising or proving you wrong. The negatives I have about this movie is that there are times during the film when you’re just waiting for Churchill’s now famous “We shall never surrender” speech to happen, I was not completely hooked from start to finish.
Darkest Hour is a reasonably interesting bio-pic about one of the world’s most influential political figures and works because of a career defining performance from Gary Oldman, a narrative that will please those audiences who are interested in their history and this film has been nominated for 6 Academy Awards including Best Picture and is bound to win at least one for Gary Oldman’s performance.