Critique of Darkest Hour- Anupama Chopra

Full text transcript of critique of Darkest Hour:

Hour has Oscar written all over it? I’ll be surprised if Gary Oldman, who plays Winston Churchill, doesn’

t win the Best Actor Award this year. But it’s not just his incredible immersive performance that merits the label. Director Joe Wright and writer Anthony McCarten have created a prestige

 biopic about an iconic British prime minister. The film is handsomely produced. It has a sweeping soundtrack by Dario Marianelli that effectively pushes audience buttons and a swiveling camera right. Especially fond of overhead shots 

and long tracking sequences, Darkstar is sturdy, straightforward storytelling, and this is not a criticism.

The driver engine, of course, is Oldman, who is nowhere to be seen. Altman convinced the make up artist Katsuhiro Souji to come out of retirement and endure four hours of makeup for 48 consecutive days. He is transformed entirely into this jowly, rotund man who was scary and steely, but also compassionate and loving. Our first glimpse of Churchill is him having breakfast in bed, which includes a glass of wine. He’s barking orders and he reduces his young new secretary to tears. His wife, Clementine, played by the exquisite Kristin Scott Thomas, says he’s a man like any other, but of course, he isn’t. Darkest Hour is a portrait of Churchill’s first month as prime minister in May and June of 1940.

Western Europe is an imminent danger of collapse. More than three hundred thousand allied soldiers are trapped in Dunkirk. Hitler and his million strong army are marching toward England. Churchill is battling with his own war cabinet and being pressed to up for negotiation and surrender.

At one point, the beleaguered prime minister roars. You cannot reason with a tiger when your head is in its mouth, right? Set this up as an inspiring drama which culminates in Churchill’s watershed. We shall fight them on the beach, a speech which we also heard at the end of Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk.

In fact, Darkest Hour works as a nice companion piece to that film. Unlike Nolan, however, Wright opts for easy sentimentality. McCarten invents a scene in which Churchill takes the tube for the first time in his life and finds strength in the courage of ordinary Londoners. It’s so cheesy that a big green Bollywood director would have rejected it. But there’s enough to enjoy especially old Altman’s towering achievement. I’m going with three and a half stars. For more reviews like this, subscribe to Film Companion.