Churchill, Mumbling Savior of World Order

Rating: 6/10 (7 January 2018)

Oscar season brings out the good stuff, but this 2+ hour soliloquy, by arguably one of the most momentous figures in the 20th Century, will leave even ardent history buffs gasping for one action scene, one cutaway from makeup, cigars, and prosthetics, no matter how effectively applied. This movie will serve a niche audience, a very special type of moviegoer who already knows and loves Winston Churchill; in fact, those relatively new to Churchill might come away thinking him a mumbling drinker, a joke cracking W.C. Fields, unsure of his place in the English government and timid regarding his approaching role in world history.
It would be an understatement to say this movie starts slowly, and at its best falls way short of anything remotely riveting. Combining the best of this plodding, myopic movie with the superficial "Dunkirk" (2017) might produce one watchable - and slightly believable - look back at World War II. Political junkies will take solace in the endless backroom machinations of Parliament, leaving the rest of us to enjoy the handkerchief waving chamber room antics. For the more discerning movie fan, it will be a leap of faith to imagine Churchill phoning Roosevelt for armaments while in the restroom, or conducting war strategy from a basement not wholly unlike "Wayne's World".
Oldman's Churchill looks like Churchill, even walks like Churchill, but perish the thought, he did not sound like Churchill. Most noticeable was the missing cadence of those wonderful words of Churchill, delivered in a now-slow, hesitating, even plodding at times, pace. While the oration style clung unerringly to the "Darkest Hour" title, just once I wanted to hear Oldman break into that famous full-throated drumbeat pace of, "Let us therefore brace ourselves for our duties, and so bear ourselves that if the British Empire and its Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will still say, 'This was their finest hour.' "
Wait for the DVD . . . or just watch clips at this year's Academy Awards Ceremony, where Oldman's Churchill will be on parade.