Darkest Hour (2017)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2017
	Director: Joe Wright (Hanna, Black Mirror TV-series Episode S3E1 Nosedive)
	Actors: Gary Oldman (The Fifth Element, Lost in Space), Lily James, Kristin Scott Thomas (Four Weddings and a Funeral)
	Country: USA, GB
	Genre: Drama, War
	Conditions of visioning: 12.04.2018, in-flight entertainment system 10" screen.
Synopsis: When come the moment to decide whether negotiating with Hitler or preparing to fight, the unorthodox Winston Churchill becomes Great Britain's Prime Minister and will have to take all the tough decisions.
Review: It is interesting to notice that this movie was released the same year as Christopher Nolan's Dunkirk, both focusing on a small piece of WWII. In fact the Dunkirk event is mentioned and quite important to the plot of Darkest Hour, but it is not at all the center of it and it is not shown at all in fact. When I think of it, Darkest Hour is a war movie that doesn't show a single war scene. Instead we spend every single moment following Churchill vividly portrayed by Gary Oldman in what is probably the role of his life. I agree that the praises and rewards he received for this role are well deserved; the movie wouldn't be much without his presence and depiction of a far-from-perfect man. In this, the movie may have exaggerated but it makes the character all the more human. What is great about this movie is that it shows the contrast between people who would be ready to follow the path of least resistance (and pretend the war is not at their doorsteps) and the others, like Churchill, who know the repercussions of the decision they are about to make. Add the characters of Churchill's wife and assistant is an otherwise very male world, a tense music, and you got yourself a WWII movie worth watching even if you are fed up with WWII movies and think that nothing more can be said after movies like The Longest Day, Schindler's List, Saving Private Ryan and (in another style) Pearl Harbor (or Tora! Tora! Tora! for the purists).
Rating: 7 /10