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DARKEST HOUR | FILM REVIEW
***
Dir Joe Wright
Starring: Gary Oldman, Kristen Scott Thomas, Stephen Dillane
PG, 2hrs 5mins
Gary Oldman’s showy yet honest, and at times forceful, depiction of Winston Churchill pilots this dramatisation of the events of Churchill’s start as Prime Minister. Winston Churchill is a figure who remains ever-present in the public’s “Greatest Britons” dialogues, and this is the man’s second cinematic outing in the past year, following the largely derided Churchill, starring Brian Cox. There is certainly a romanticised view of the Great Briton at the moment, upon which Darkest Hour adds a touch of gloss and shine to the esteemed former Prime Minister, occasionally to nauseating results.
Darkest Hour also marks the second major film release in the last year to use the Dunkirk evacuation as a romantic showcase of British pride and values, the first being Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk. But where Dunkirk displayed the touching will of spirit in the troops, Darkest Hour takes us to the war rooms and political backdrop of those events. Director Joe Wright is excellent in keeping the narrative entertaining whilst also being non-apologetic about its dialogue-heavy nature. He manages to bring vibrancy and urgency into 1940s Britain, enlightening proceedings that could have easily fallen into dull, clichéd and lifeless political chatter, instead much of the cinematography is inspired, energetic and fresh, mirroring Gary Oldman’s portrayal of Churchill; gone is the presumed brooding grump and here is by all accounts an honest portrayal of Churchill as his spirited and humorous self.
In terms of attention to detail, the costuming, casting and portrayals, by most if not all of the cast members, is fantastic. There is a real sense of fact and respect of it throughout, the mise-en-scene engrossing in its capturing of the times; the project is layered with accuracy. However, at times the film’s romanticised agenda gets in the way of its drama – one scene that stands out contains Churchill boarding the underground alone to produce a consensus from the people. While it has a flair of touching spirit to it, it plays off as a loathsome interjection of current world politics affecting its portrayal of true events, stopping the drama in its tracks and anchoring down the final act of the film.
There are also missteps with the narrative tone; much of the film eludes any analytical look into Churchill and his decisions and instead it acts as a British Second World War 101 history lesson (Not necessarily bad if you know very little about Churchill), brushing over events lightly and playing off opinions dissenting towards Churchill as cowardly, when the film could have been taken part in more of a discussion. Despite this, Gary Oldman once again loses himself in his performance and looks almost unrecognisable, although there is still a touch of Oldman there. I was not particularly wowed by Oldman’s shape-shifting into Churchill, but there is little doubt that it takes tremendous talent and effort to even give a good performance behind prosthetics and Oldman goes above box-standard portrayal, thoroughly gripping throughout the movie and never distracting. Certainly, he’s Darkest Hour’s finest moment.
words JAKE YOUNG
Out now in cinemas.
