Gripping and dark

Rating: Null/10 (22 January 2018)

22 January 2018
Film of Choice at The Plaza Dorchester Tonight - Darkest Hour. Darkest hour indeed. This biopic of Winston Churchill showcases his rise to Prime Minister and the battles he faced whilst in office during some of the darkest days of the history of Great Britain. Now, my knowledge of history is not very comprehensive so I came into this film with an open mind and a trust that what I was being shown was fairly close to the truth as far as historical accuracy was concerned. That being so, I was quite surprised to learn how he was being undercut by members of parliament and being pushed into making decisions he wasn't ready to make. Politics is another area which often eludes me but this film drew me in and I was gripped right from the start. Gary Oldman was outstanding in his role as Winston, he brought a vulnerability to the man, whilst portraying his immense strength, and massive credit must be given to the make up department for his transformation. If you looked into his eyes you could see it was him, and a side profile of his mouth also gave him away but apart from that we were looking at Churchill the whole time. The glorious Kristin Scott Thomas played the long suffering Clemmie and brought her usual dazzling pizazz to the character. Amongst the superb remaining supporting cast I must mention Ben Mendelsohn who was cleverly cast as King George VI, he brought a believability to the role which showed a man fearful for his country and steadfast in his support for those he felt would do their best for him. A great, bleak, dark, powerful film, I believe we may be looking at the winner of this year's Best Actor at the Oscars.