There has been a long and steady string of motion pictures and television shows that have looked into the personal and political life of Winston Churchill. Because there have been so many productions, it's not just enough to retread the same historical facts in yet another offering unless those behind the project are prepared to present the effort in vibrant new way.
"Darkest Hour" fails to do that.
The feature from director Joe Wright ("Atonement") and screenwriter Anthony McCarten ("The Theory of Everything") is a mechanically stiff presentation that methodically hits all the key historical points without ever pausing to put them in context or show them in an interesting new light. If it weren't for two superb acting performances by Gary Oldman ("Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy") as Churchill and Ben Mendelsohn ("Rogue One") as King George VI, "Darkest Hour" would have been a couple of dark hours in the theater.
McCarten's script focuses on the early days of World War II, just before France had fallen under the blitzkrieg of the Nazi army. The fall of France would naturally be followed by an invasion of England, a fact made terrifyingly probable by the problems at Dunkirk, where the British arm was one attack away from total defeat. It is up to newly-appointed British Prime Minister Churchill (Oldman) to save the country.
The story unfolds over a four-week period in which Churchill not only faces seemingly unwinnable scenarios on the battlefront, but also at home. With little support from the politicians, a lack of confidence shown by the monarchy and an inability to exciting the British allies to provide support, Churchill _ just like England _ stands on the brink of disaster.
All of this will be familiar to anyone who has seen the other productions or read a history book. That's one of the deals with a devil a filmmaker must make when basing a story on history. There's no cheating by having aliens arrive from Mars or time travelers to reset the past when the story becomes too familiar.
What is new is the performance by Oldman under so much makeup it would be difficult to identify him in a police lineup. It's not the makeup that makes his performance so intriguing; it is the way Oldman plays the icon historical figure. There's the pompousness that's so familiar, and Oldman also handles the beautiful way with words Churchill had that made him a great orator. The real strength comes in quieter moments, the times when Churchill is shown less as one of the great figures in history and more like a driven man who suddenly faces the real possibility that he has taken on a task that makes Sisyphus' labors look light.
Oldman is at his best when he's with Mendelsohn. There's a moment in Churchill's bedroom in which the two are not under world scrutiny, and they share a conversation that is rich because of the humanity that both bring to the work. Moments when people let down their guard are always more enjoyable than watching them strut and fret their way through a regurgitated history lesson.
Mendelsohn doesn't get as much screen time as Oldman, but his work is equally impressive. Wright would have been better off to ditch the idea of making this a movie and turned the project into a two-man play, with the actors giving full rein to show their skills.
That's all the film had going for it as Wright's direction offers nothing new. He's filled the movie with endless scenes of Churchill pacing through his home, Parliament, the British war room and even down London streets. The director tries to fortify the story by having his film going from a brighter lighting at the start and slowly spiraling down into darker tones as the British fate gets gloomier. The effort is more of a gimmick than a plus to the overall vision.
Aside from Churchill and King George VI, the characters in "Darkest Hour" are more shadow puppets than fully functional people. Lily James, who always brings life to her roles, is left struggling with a two-dimensional part as Elizabeth Layton, a typist for Churchill. The pair share a couple moments, but mostly Layton looks more like the result of someone trying to fill a quota of having enough women in the cast.
The most massive failing has to do with Kristin Scott Thomas as Churchill's wife, Clementine. There are glimpses of how important she was in Churchill's life, but only presented in agonizingly short snippets. This is a woman who was the biggest supporters of one of the greatest men in history, and her story is equally as important, but you would never know it from "Darkest Hour."
Historical dramas come with immediate limitations, and it requires a counter attack of originality by the director and writer to succeed. Both Wright and McCarten showed no such effort, and the result is a methodical recounting of a well-known story given some life by Oldman and Mendelsohn. It's a bully of an effort on their part, but just not enough.
