movie review
‘Darkest Hour’ may be Gary Oldman’s finest two hours
As we move ever deeper into the current film-award season, one of the performances that’s received the most attention – and for good reason – is by a veteran talent who stands out in virtually any role he tackles, even when he’s a lot better than the film in question.
However, “Darkest Hour” is thoroughly worthy of Gary Oldman, and he expectedly puts fresh and compelling spins on a figure who’s been played by numerous other actors over the years: Winston Churchill. As the title implies, the movie deals with a specific period early in Churchill’s reign as England’s prime minister ... a time when certain nations are considering surrender to Adolf Hitler.
Churchill doesn’t exactly have the full confidence of his fellow countrymen as he takes office, but he presses forth and refuses to give in to the Nazi leader ... vowing to put his country in a full war stance, rather than try to broker peace.
Oldman gets a lot of help from the makeup department in generating his Churchill, but it also takes the force of his acting to put the portrayal over the finish line. He does that with expected brilliance, and also with a major assist from director Joe Wright, who has brought freshness to such other traditional tales as “Pride & Prejudice” and “Anna Karenina.”
Such co-stars as Kristin Scott Thomas, Ben Mendelsohn, Lily James and Stephen Dillane also provide Oldman with notable acting support. Writer Anthony McCarten surely deserves a nod as well for his extremely literate script, which does a very fine job of detailing the man behind the international legend where Churchill was concerned.
While he obviously never breaks character, it’s evident nevertheless how much Oldman embraced the acting challenge “Darkest Hour” gave him. He’s always been an actor who loses himself in a role, and with Churchill, there certainly is a lot to lose oneself in. Much to his credit, Oldman also works with prosthetics ... no small thing in this case, since he has to alter his look much more than usual for the part.