Darkest Hour

Darkest Hour (2017)

Starring Gary Oldman, Kristin Scott Thomas, Ben Mendelsohn, and Lily James

Directed by Joe Wright

Written by Anthony McCarten

Summary (in 500 words or less): British Prime Minister Winston Churchill (Gary Oldman) accepts the job and is immediately thrust into how to tackle the Axis forces as they invade Dunkirk in France. With tens of thousands of British soldiers in harm's way, Churchill faces the difficult decision of bargaining with Hitler or saving his men utilizing a very unique method of recruiting civilians with boats to head into war territory to carry of British troops.

• There's nothing particularly wrong with Darkest Hour, but in the end, it lacks uniqueness, playing a bit too much like typical formulaic historical biopics.  
• I did appreciate that writer Anthony McCarten focuses on only a short span of Churchill's job as PM (maybe a little over a month is all we're looking at here), rather than an entire biography of Churchill's life.  Having the Dunkirk invasion as the primary focus is a smart decision in that it (a) is a pivotal moment in WWII, and (b) shows us how Churchill handled a stressful and unique situation right off the bat upon starting his job.
• Gary Oldman is good as Churchill and creates a commanding presence, but I'm not quite sure he wowed me beyond delivering a solid performance.
• I did find some historical elements interesting -- it's amazing how close the Brits were to caving in to Hitler and his demands -- and this film does a better job than Dunkirk at conveying the extent of the amount of soldiers on the ground in Dunkirk that needed rescuing.
• Joe Wright is a consistently solid director whose visual aesthetic breathes a bit of fresh life into what could typically be stolid pieces of cinema.  He works his magic here as well to an admittedly lesser effect in part because much of the scenes feel purposely cloistered (particularly in the British War Rooms) as we see the weight of the situation caving in on Churchill.

The RyMickey Rating:  B-