Awards glory awaits Oldman

leading actor honour and it is more predictable than Donald Trump offending someone on Twitter that an Oscar nod will follow.

There is a lot more to Darkest Hour than its powerhouse lead, however, as Wright makes a welcome return to form after misfires like Pan, Hanna and The Soloist.

Maybe it’s no coincidence this is his finest work since 2007’s Atonement as the two films share a time period and Wright seems very comfortable framing Britain’s difficult past; this time using an abundance of literal darkness to show how testing a time this was for the nation and its political leader.

Anthony McCarten (The Theory of Everything) penned the story and hits all of the crucial beats you would expect, along with giving us a West Wing-style peek behind the curtain of the corridors of power – in less lavish, glamorised fashion.

Kristin Scott Thomas (Clemmie), Lily James (Elizabeth Layton), David Strathairn (President Roosevelt) and Australian Ben Mendelsohn (King George VI) are the biggest names, and most familiar faces, among the supporting ensemble and while they all do commendable work, they get rather lost in the glow of Oldman’s brilliance.

A latter, fictional, scene involving Churchill canvassing opinions on a subway train also feels very out of place and like a concession to over-thetop, unsubtle imagery.

Overall, though, Darkest Hour is a gripping, masterful exercise in simple-but-splendid storytelling led by an acting legend at the pinnacle of his profession.