A great performance piece

Rating: 6/10 (27 January 2018)

Gary Oldman is a fantastic actor, but I had doubts when I saw him in trailers as Winston Churchill. In all the trailers it just seemed like Gary Oldman in a fat suit with some makeup. But as Winston Churchill in Darkest Hour, he truly transcends my initial impressions. He should definitely win the Oscar for best actor. I don't want to go to in depth on him, but he does feel like Churchill, or at least a very distinct character.
So, how is the actual movie? Much better than I thought it would be. Movies like this have tendencies to only focus on the individual performance, like what happened in last years Roman J Israel Esq. Fortunately this film excels in both its narrative, all around cast and style. The cast is great, and although Oldman is the standout, he doesn't outshine other actors. Other actors such Ben Mendelsohn are great as well.
The story is what I was most concerned about because in non fiction films the stories have a tendency to get ruined by the fact that they might be putting too many cliches or tropes in a story that is far more interesting without them, or they might treat as the story actually happened, and as such the story doesn't seem to have much focus. However this story seems to get the balance right. While they do exceptionally well in the story department, out of three most important things to me in a film (story, characters and style) this is the weakest of the three because their are pacing issues and one particularly unneccessary scene. I'd say the first 20 to 30 minutes needed a sense of direction because they seemed a bit meaningless, but they were good scenes anyway, just too slow. I can't mention the scene in case I spoil it for anyone (and i dont want this to be a spoiler review as it is a new release) it is towards the end of the film and it feels very awkward and it sort of rubbed me the wrong way. You'll get what I am saying when you see the film.
Style is a problem I have with a lot of Oscar nominated films, like Call me by your name or Lion, and so many others. With bland cinematography and sound, its hard to remember these films, and for someone like me who loves film it annoys me when I see these high calibre films made with little effort besides from the writer and actors. However this film has a great style, utilizing bright white colours and grey to emphasize the time period, and also the depressing state that Europe was in. The sound was fairly effective with a forgettable but effective score, and great sounds that established the period. There is this one call that I believe is an actual recording from this event. That's either cool if they did find the recording, or props to the sound department that made me actually believe it was an actual 1940 recording.
So this film is pretty great, establishing that 2017 had not only had really great films, but really great WW2 films too. Although a few flaws hold it back from the 10/10 rating, this movie is great and well worth a watch at the theatres.