"Darkest Hour" by Joe Wright - a picture of how Winston Churchill, at the head of the British government, in 1940 made the decision to evacuate the Allied forces from Dunkirk. In my opinion, the main success of this historically accurate and traditional biopic is the work of Gary Oldman, who brilliantly reincarnated as a British premier (the actor already received the "Golden Globe" for this role).
Six months after the large-scale "Dunkirk", in which Christopher Nolan remembered his British roots, "Darkest Hour" by another English director of the same generation, no less well known on both sides of the Atlantic, leaves - Joe Wright ("Pride & Prejudice", "Anna Karenina"). Joe Wright in Atonement has already shown his visual interpretation of the evacuation from Dunkirk in 1940. Now he told how this decision was made - what was going on in the London offices and how King of Great Britain George VI (from The King's Speech), Neville Chamberlain and Winston Churchill, the main character of the film, had to do with this turning point of the Second World War. The finals of "Dunkirk" and "Darkest Hour" are one and the same speech, famous all over the world: "We Shall Fight on the Beaches ..."
You can guess or speculate on the topic "why now", where this coincidence comes from. Premonition of a great world war? Feelings of another misfortune? A shortage of politicians such as Churchill - despising political correctness, talented, complex, outspoken people with firm principles? Unknown; all together or none of the above. One thing is clear - from these two paintings would have been a great double session.
Unlike "Dunkirk", which was almost wordless (it was not for nothing that someone guessed to remount it in a silent film — it came out very convincingly) and built on the imitation of direct sensory experience, Darkest Hour is a very, even too traditional colloquial biopic made in an apprentice carefully. First, this concerns the script of Anthony McCarten, in which there are unbearably monotonous scenes, which are necessary only for the logical connection of historical events with each other, but not able to touch emotionally, but there is, on the contrary, frankly stilted. The worst of them is the one in which Churchill descends into the subway before making a fateful decision and engages in dialogue with "ordinary Londoners" (they look like decoy ducks: they are, however, just an imperious government agent hoisted them and director Joe Wright). To the question "What to do?". All of them, including women, disabled people and children, begin to shout in chorus "Beat the fascists to the bitter end!", and then they begin to recite patriotic poems.
On the other hand, the film is compiled and made in English meticulously, you will involuntarily admire. Surely, there are critically few historical blunders and mistakes; each character is shown in lovingly collected details. Still, the British can teach patriotism any other nation. The most fantastic work, however, came from the Frenchman, the phenomenal operator Bruno Delbonnel. He shot "Amélie" and one of "Harry Potter", "Faust" and "Francofonia" for Sokurov, "Inside Llewyn Davis" for the Coen’s brothers. Here, having already completely recovered from the romantic foggy fabulousness, he masterly plays with the subtlest nuances of Rembrandt half-light, in which, according to the title of the film, the main character wanders without hope of enlightenment - until the climax comes when he predictably presents the public from his fingers V.
It is clear that he, Winston Churchill or Gary Oldman - as you like, - is the main attraction of "Darkest Hour". Opinions about the role will be diametrically opposed. On the one hand, Oldman did something unthinkable: the portrait likeness seems absolute, while there is no impression of a comedian in make-up or mask, we are a living person. On the other hand, in this character, it is so difficult to find out Oldman himself, that one wants to exalt the artist, not the artist (who argues, the outstanding one), anymore. By the way, the legendary Tsuji Kazuhiro, who worked with Akira Kurosawa (but also did Men in Black and How the Grinch Stole Christmas), specifically, at Oldman's request, returned from retirement to make this incredible transformation.
In defense of Oldman, who has long earned his "Oscar", one can say that the acting profession is still facial expression, movement and gesticulation; here, too, his work seems extremely complex and flawlessly executed. They say it all started with training intonations and voices - this part was the most difficult, and only having overcome it, after several months of exercise, Oldman turned to Tsuji Kazuhiro for help. Here, perhaps it’s time to stop talking about a stereotyped and high-quality historical picture, and use this fact as a weighty argument in favor of producing such films in order to give viewers the opportunity to appreciate the subtle and painstaking component of acting.