Great Acting By The Cast Was Spoiled By The Fantasy Script

Rating: 6/10 (21 October 2018)

Director Joe Wright takes 'Darkest Hour" to Winston Churchill's early years as Prime Minister as he's now on his own in his involvement during one of darkest moments in world history as WWII is at its pinnacle, Churchill must make decisions that will determine the fate of Europe if such parties should succeed. One thing for sure, failure is not an option. While the performers might have a well balance of character both physically and mentally, the real red herring was when the script meanders into the realms of fantasy over accuracy.
In recent years Sir Churchill has been a popular historical character to portray with President Lincoln coming at a close second. From Brian Cox, to John Lithgow, from Michael Gambon to Robert Hardy and getting mention in high prolific movies like "Dunkirk", "A United Kingdom" and "Viceroy's House". Now it's time for Gary Oldman to step up to the front of the line to portray one of the greatest Prime Ministers in British history. From the looks of things, Mr. Oldman has molded himself in near perfect detail from the rounded jowls to the rich sonorous voice, Oldman's portrayal is the best one of the whole bunch.
Wright's film directs us to May of 1940 where ailing Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain (Ronald Pickup) declares he's resigning his position due to declining health while under pressure brought on by the Labour Party leader Clement Attlee (David Schofield). At first Chamberlain appoints Viscount Halifax (Stephen Dillane) to take over, but felt he wasn't ready up to the task. Therefore, Chamberlain dig deep and appoints Churchill to replace him. In an awkward twist, we find that Churchill is not present to hear this announcement, with one MP whispering something made for some witty sarcastic banter. The dialogue used in Anthony McCarten's script provides the weak spots to "Darkest Hour" as he replaces a more reverent use of speech to more a more cynical humour that almost feels satirical over authentic. Another primary example stems from the somewhat estranged relationship between Churchill and his wife Clementine (a near-perfect Kristen Scott-Thomas) after one of his shouting matches to her, she responds by calling him ,"an insufferable, pig"!
Although Churchill is a stapled named in the history books when the subject of WWII comes to mind, almost like he's an immortal comic book hero of some sort, but in the end, he's still human and his decisions have not always been the smartest. But still he's weaker moments in history doesn't get enough mention. Take for instance the Gallipoli disaster come up time to time but is regarded as minor flaw when really it's anything but. Or even his angst-laden weekly get together with King George VI (a subtle performance by Ben Mendelsohn who lays low on the trademark stammer) who questions how he manages to hold a high position while consuming so much alcohol. His direct response, "practice".
And even though the witty banter is subtle hyperbole, it still has moments where it holds a place in remaining plausible. But the script can't seem to get a grip on the scenes and situations where Churchill is at his most vulnerable in the more challenging moments that occurred during the events of of WWII. Where the Nazis overthrow the smaller countries, the French army is losing it's battle, 400,000 Allied soldiers were deported to the French island of Dunkirk, where he's stuck in the war cabinet while Chamberlain and Halifax are persuading for him to make surrender with Germany, it's where the realism of the story meanders to fantasy territory. The most absurd moments was when King George pays a nightly visit to him while unprotected and unguarded who out of nowhere and without a reason arbitrarily takes his side to tell him to consult the people and ask for their approval. So after getting off an underground locomotive, he addresses to the people if he should surrender his fight and let Hitler take over. The crowd responses "Never!" and with that he read off a quote from Macaulay's "Horatius". All the while the train ride from St. James Park to Westminster seems to take 10 minutes.
Wright's awkward direction never fully recovers from the surrealism in spite of the acting that is truly top of the line. Ronald Pickup was truly amazing as the gaunt and ill Chamberlain (who would die six months later from cancer). Stephen Dillane was also quite impressive as Lord Halifax who has a vampire-like image towards him. Oldman delivers a powerful speech in the end with the "we shall fight on the beaches" but it's not very likely that he would be right there on the District Line.