Rating of
3/4
"Darkest Hour" by Yojimbo
Yojimbo - wrote on 02/03/19
After a vote of no confidence in Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, Parliament selects veteran politician and often divisive figure Winston Churchill to lead the country in its fight against Hitler.
Darkest Hour is a political drama set during what has become a period in British history that has come to define the national consciousness; the darkest of times, but a time that forged the courage of our convictions and bravery in the face of adversity. Because the story is so wordy, director Joe Wright has felt the need to overcompensate with some unnecessary visual embellishment and plot contrivances that threaten to topple over into “The Comic Strip Presents: Strike!”-style Hollywood self-parody, the worst example being the scene set in an Underground carriage which is – and worse, feels like – pure fiction. Thankfully Gary Oldman’s towering performance steadies the ship when necessary and some quality dialogue highlights Churchill’s typically acerbic wit.
Some will consider the film all talk and no action, but taken as a companion piece to its contemporary Dunkirk – which brilliantly shows the consequences of these political decisions – and you have a nicely rounded depiction of a defining part of British history.
