'Darkest Hour' Review: As You Have Heard Already, Oldman Is Sensational!


⭐ Darkest Hour ⭐ Review ⭐ 8/10 ⭐

Darkest Hour is directed by Joe Wright and stars Gary Oldman, Lily James and Ben Mendelsohn. The movie takes place in the beginning of WW2, Hitler has just sent his army to the neutral Belgium. Britain's house of parliament is in utter chaos. Neville Chamberlain (Ronald Pickup), who signed a peace treaty with Hitler only weeks earlier has lost all his support in parliament. The only man that the opposition will accept is Winston Churchill (Gary Oldman), a politician with a past full of fiascos. Hated by his colleagues, Churchill must rule the UK in a state of crisis with all odds against him.

Darkest Hour isn't an action movie, it's more of a political thriller about one man's stand against the Nazis while the whole world weighs heavy on his shoulders. The focus is 100% on Churchill, luckily Oldman pulled it off in style. Oldman brings new aspects of Churchill to the big screen - an energetic, funny and slightly awkward Churchill. The movie is genuinely very funny, but doesn't lack the amount of powerful scenes, such as Churchill's famous speech - it made me shiver. Wright got the tone of the movie just right. The cinematography is stunning and the lighting was just outstanding.

Even though I like the fact that the movie focuses on Churchill, it does bring some problems. The other character arcs are really thin. James and Mendelsohn give really good performances with what they have. However, the actions of the characters are rarely motivated and don't work at all with Mendelsohn's character. Another negative is the music. I'll admit, in the last scene it made my jaw drop, but otherwise it was never really there. There were many powerful scenes where the music felt sort of "meh." My last minus is that the movie is very British, it makes fun of the allied leaders, such as president Roosevelt. Darkest Hour is a politically correct movie that celebrates Churchill. But why ruin other big names during that time period?

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