Oldman unveils his finest hour His finest hour
DArkeST HoUr HHHH (Cert PG; 125mins)
GARY OLDMAN is possibly the last person you would cast to play Winston Churchill. He is too young, too thin and too self-effacing to play the man regularly voted the greatest British prime minister. But Darkest Hour turns all those reservations on their head.
Physically transformed by an amazing make-up and prosthetics team, a virtually unrecognisable Oldman delivers a stunning tour de force.
Bristling with anger, haunted by doubt, his Churchill is both inspirational and deeply human with Oldman capturing his bulldog determination, irascible temper and unexpected vulnerability.
It is a fully realised acting masterclass that earned him a well-deserved Golden Globe last weekend and Oscar recognition must surely follow. The film also earned nine Bafta nominations this week.
Darkest Hour is set during a brief period in the summer of 1940 when the fate of the nation hung in the balance. It is the same period covered in Dunkirk and Churchill but director Joe Wright invests Darkest Hour with all the intrigue and momentum of a page-turning Robert Harris thriller, the film moving with an energy that reflects the urgent need for decisive action.
Hitler is sweeping through Europe, France is about to fall and Britain is facing the prospect of imminent invasion. Prime minister Neville Chamberlain (Ronald Pickup) has lost the confidence of his party and the electorate so he resigns and Churchill is the controversial choice as his successor. Cometh the hour, cometh the man.
Darkest Hour explores the pressure on Churchill to make peace with Hitler and justify his appointment as prime minister. Lord Halifax (Stephen Dillane) is a leading advocate for surrender, his honourable intentions sprinkled with self-interest as he schemes to undermine Churchill and promote his own political ambitions. Halifax is a close personal friend of King George VI (Ben Mendelsohn) and he seeks to influence him against Churchill.
With almost all of the British Army stranded on the French coast, military options appear to be running out and diplomacy seems inevitable, Churchill faces the unthinkable. Capitulation to Hitler may be the only way to save the lives of thousands of Britons who would perish in a seemingly futile conflict.
The film brings home a vivid sense of what was at stake. But Churchill’s encounters with ordinary British citizens gave him the resolve to keep calm and carry on.
Darkest Hour combines a thrilling history lesson with a fascinating portrait of a leader. Our sense of who Churchill was is partly defined by his actions and spellbinding oratory but also by the way he is viewed by those around him, especially his loyal and loving wife Clemmie, beautifully played by Kristin Scott Thomas.
There is also a key role for Lily James as Elizabeth Layton, the nervous secretary who incurs Churchill’s wrath before later basking in the warm glow of his affectionate approval.
The film errs on the side of sentimental and is occasionally a little too flippant for its own good but generally this is a rousing, immensely entertaining crowd-pleaser with a thoroughly
mesmerising performance from Oldman in one of the finest hours of his career.
ERIC CLAPTON: A LIFE IN 12 BARS ★★★ (Cert 15; 131mins)
YOU have to admire the candour of Eric Clapton: A Life In 12 Bars. Lili Fini Zanuck’s painstaking documentary doesn’t shy away from the dark side of its subject, spending considerable time on Clapton’s years of heroin and alcohol addiction and the tragedies that have blighted his life.
You wish it spent as much time on his music, especially the last 25 years which seem to barely rate a mention. But there is still a wealth of archive material and audio commentary from Clapton that will make this essential viewing for fans. The early sequences are the best as we learn of Clapton’s blissful childhood and early discovery of his love for the blues.
But the revelation that his sister was actually his mother was a key moment in transforming him into an introverted loner who was permanently angry with the world. Music was his salvation and there is fantastic footage of his years with John Mayall & The Bluesbreakers and Cream. We see him playing with Aretha Franklin and hanging out with best friend George Harrison and with Jimi Hendrix.
Clapton’s infatuation with Harrison’s wife Pattie signalled the start of a period when life seemed barely worth living. The fact that Clapton survived and eventually found happiness provides an upbeat ending to this story of his often tortured, tormented life.
A WOMAN’S LIFE ★★★ (Cert 12A; 116mins)
THIS French-language film of Guy de Maupassant novella A Woman’s Life is a gruelling adaptation of a tale filled with betrayal.
Director Stéphane Brizé immerses us in the relentless misery of a woman at the mercy of a society determined to crush her spirit. It is an ambitious production but requires a fair amount of patience.
In the early 19th century Jeanne (Judith Chemla) is a convent-educated girl living an idyllic existence with her wealthy parents Simon-Jacques (Jean-Pierre Darroussin) and Adelaide (Yolande Moreau). She will wed handsome nobleman Julien (Swann Arlaud). But over the next quarter of a century all her naive, romantic illusions are shattered. Life is filled with disappointment and it is her duty to accept her fate.
Brizé favours searching close-ups and a documentary-like realism that adds to the film’s claustrophobic feel and underlines Jeanne’s sense of being trapped. The saving grace is an excellent performance from Chemla as she captures Jeanne’s journey from carefree youth to careworn middle-age.
TEMPESTAD ★★★ (Cert 15; 105mins)
ON the basis of Tempestad, Mexico is one of the last places on the planet you would want to live.
This enigmatic documentary offers a window into a country where crime pays, innocent people survive in a state of fear and those in power regard corruption as a way of life.
The testimonies of two women provide the backbone of the film. An unidentified woman tells of being arrested by the police and charged with human trafficking. There is no evidence of her guilt but she is soon held in a private prison run by a cartel. Her family is asked to pay $5,000 and then $500 a week to keep her alive.
We also hear from Adela Alvardo who is part of a circus family. It is not clear whether there is a connection between the two lives until we discover Adela’s daughter was kidnapped 10 years previously. She is still missing and assumed to have been a victim of a human trafficking ring. Both are the victims of a chilling world in this disturbing, experimental work. ROCK LEGEND: Eric Clapton