Our verdict on Harry Styles’ big-screen debut in Christopher Nolan’s blockbuster Dunkirk
DUNKIRK CERT 12A, 106 MINUTES, OPENS 21 JULY Starring: Mark Rylance, Tom Hardy, Harry Styles, Fionn Whitehead, Tom Glynn-carney, Jack Lowden, Aneurin Barnard, Kenneth Branagh, Cillian Murphy Director: Christopher Nolan
THE PLOT This hugely anticipated WW2 film from the writer/director of The Dark Knight trilogy, Inception and Interstellar uses an unusual and bold structure, cross-cutting between three sets of characters in three settings – on land, in the air and at sea – to tell the story of 400,000 Allied soldiers who were stranded and trapped on Dunkirk beach in France, at the mercy of the advancing Germans. Whitehead, Barnard and Styles play three of those young soldiers, thrust from one seemingly impossible situation to the next; pilots Lowden and Hardy are in their Spitfires trying to stop German planes from bombing the troops; and veteran Rylance sets out in his boat with his son (Glynn-carney) and a young local (Barry Keoghan) to join in the desperate rescue mission.
WHAT’S RIGHT WITH IT? From the first sequence – when young Brit soldier Tommy (Whitehead) tries to escape from Dunkirk town under heavy enemy gunfire and amid mass confusion – the film is an extraordinary and overwhelmingly immersive and kinetic experience, plunging us into the middle of a bewilderingly terrifying situation, where everyone is just desperately trying to survive. The daring three-way split narrative is initially a tad confusing, as events are played out over different periods of time and seen from different points of view, but it soon exercises an intense grip, aided by Nolan’s awesome visuals. The deeply powerful soundtrack by Hans Zimmer, and a universally great cast – from Kenneth Branagh’s stiff-upper-lip Commander, trying to manage a logistical nightmare, to Harry Styles’ pragmatic squaddie (see sidebar) doing anything he can to stay alive – all come together perfectly.
WHAT’S WRONG WITH IT?
If you’re expecting traditional narrative devices such as providing backstories for the main characters, you’ll be disappointed. But it’s all part of Nolan’s masterplan to create a totally “in-the-moment” experience.
VERDICT A relentlessly tense, deeply involving and, in the end, profoundly moving depiction of an extraordinary event. It’s a stunning achievement. HHHHH Boyd Hilton