Middling at best

Rating: 5/10 (14 October 2018)

DARKEST HOUR is little more than a middling biopic of Britain's most famous historical figure, one of those films that the critics and award-givers rave about but I watch wondering what all the fuss is about. Made on exactly the same template as THE KING'S SPEECH - except nowhere near as involving - this focuses on Churchill's life at the outset of the WW2, in particular his desperate organisation of the Dunkirk landings. It's a film which makes a great deal out of very little, presenting our hero with an hour-long dilemma about whether he should seek peace with Hitler, although as the story is already well known to most viewers this doesn't really impact on the audience much. Gary Oldman won rave reviews for his turn as the big man, but for me he was simply Gary Oldman in a fat suit and not very convincing. The supporting cast are better, with Stephen Dillane and Ben Mendelsohn in particular standing out. The film has its moments, but is overlong and it does feel padded and particularly slow in the second half.