a near masterpiece, definitely the work of an artist.

Rating: 10/10 (27 August 2017)

I am mostly nitpicking here... Anyway. The last ~10 minutes were not necessary imo from a cinematic point of view, perhaps they were from a sentimental-historic point of view but if the film ended the moment the soldiers are unloaded from the ships back to England and slowly are leaving while handed blankets it would be an exquisite exercise in form.
The music although very well produced follows the same ol' pattern from most Zimmer- Nolan collaborations. A stylistic approach standing above all these films making it's "manipulative" power very upfront, almost annoying.
It works very well but it starts to feel a bit gimmicky. The ending music though, more like a Vangelis copycat, is actually quite bad.
As for the critic about the lack of character development etc?
I would like to believe that the fear of shame the soldier feels in the train is the directors hidden critic for the audience asking character development although probably not..
A masterpiece is not a bunch of ticks a movie gets in x number of categories. This is a strongly emotional movie and if someone cannot experience empathy for the desperation, fear and horror young kids experience in Dunkirk, the suffocation of drowning etc surely using "props" to build a character wouldn't satisfy them either. For me character development would be against what this movie is about.