Roqoo Depot
Movie Review: 'Darkest Hour'
February 6, 2018 at 5:59 pm | Posted in Movies, Reviews | 1 Comment
As a fan of war movies and Gary Oldman, I had to see Darkest Hour. In this film, Oldman plays Winston Churchill as Britain deals with the stunning success of the German army as their panzers roll across France and threaten the safety of their island empire. Churchill is placed in power and ready to fight, but his fellow political leaders are more interested in peace talks than sticking their necks out. The situation is only made worse by the fact that their army is facing annihilation in France with little hope of escape. Faced with a looming military defeat, a foreign nation let by a despicable tyrant, and allies who want to give up, Churchill deals with his darkest hour.
First off, Gary Oldman's performance is superb. Whatever they did to make him look like Churchill works great, and I never found myself distracted by any weird CGI or prosthetics. It all looked real and natural. Oldman's mannerisms and speech inflection definitely captured the vibe of Winston Churchill, and the story does a great job of giving viewers an idea of what he was like. Now there's no action in this movie as it's a pure character piece, and it is very politically focused. The story starts with how Churchill became Prime Minister. It covers him having to deal with the previous Prime Minister, Neville Chamberlain, who infamously appeased Hitler at the start of the war allowing Germany to begin its unchecked expansion as they conquered countries left and right. He also has to deal with Lord Halifax, the favored candidate to replace Chamberlain, and another person who is in favor of peace talks with Germany. Completing the trifecta is King George VI, who doesn't really like Churchill, but being in the positions that they are, they have to meet each other and somehow get by with directing the future of Britain.
While that might sound a bit boring, Darkest Hour actually does a great job of handling the politics and keeping things interesting. The characters themselves are a great distraction from what could be boring politics, but there's some nice drama as the story unfolds. The web of politics is done so in a way where you find yourself rooting for some characters and hating others. Plus the historical events that play out keep the tension growing as things seem to get worse and worse.
As a bonus to all of this, Darkest Hour is a great companion piece to Dunkirk. The events in this film lead up to and follow up on the results of the evacuation at Dunkirk. Unlike Christopher Nolan's movie, this film explains why Dunkirk was so important and how it came to be. Even though it's a movie devoid of action, the strength of its characters makes up for it, and Darkest Hour is a movie worth seeing. I give it a three out of five metal bikinis.
Reviewed By: Skuldren for Roqoo Depot.
Nice review. Great performances. The movie itself is just fine.
Comment by Dan O.— February 7, 2018 #
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