Darkest Hour

Synopsis

Winston Churchill was not the man they wanted, but his ability to see the stand they needed to make made him the person that the United Kingdom needed as they resist the Nazi spread over Western Europe.

Review

This is part of an unintended trilogy (Darkest Hour, Dunkirk, and Their Finest (2016)) that all cover the same event, the evacuation of Dunkirk. I recently saw and old Graham Norton Show interview were Hugh Jackman gushed over Gary Oldman's performance on this movie and having never seen it, I felt I had to as Hugh Jackman is easily one of the greatest actors of our time.

This movie was really good, I knew that there were some issues within the UK during the initial rise of the Nazi Regime and that Chamberlin had almost given the UK up to them, but I didn't realize how much animosity Churchill had from his own party about being made Prime Minister.

It is a slow movie, but the performances and story are outrageously good. It is a biopic so don't expect action and scenes of intense vitality in the modern sense. This movie was brought to us to tell a story of man rising to the occasion and standing up for their beliefs, unlikely partners, and the stand against Fascism.

My Rating

This was an outstanding movie that Gary Oldman put on a stellar performance for as you can tell by the litany of awards it received. We talk about the defining aspects of WWII and the people that took part in it as it is such an important part of modern history and where the world is today, but we only recently have some of those stories being told in a true sense with less romanticized creative editing (For more about this, see Lessons for the Living). This movie is great to watch, but slow so it is an 8. Hugh Jackman is right to gush over Gary Oldman for his part as it is worth watching just to see this mountain of a man brought to the screen.

Parental Rating

There is no consistent language, no violence, no sex. It tells a great story and shows the sacrifice of family during a time of more sacrifice. Mom and Dad approve, but it would not be my mom's first choice to watch. My dad really like WWII things on the history channel so he would be all about this.

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