Review #1,309: 'Darkest Hour' (2017)

2017 saw cinema give us the complete Dunkirk experience: first with Christopher Nolan's ground-level, soldiers-eye view of one of the main turning points of World War II, and later with this, Joe Wright's Darkest Hour, told from the point-of-view of the stuffy politicians back at home shouting at each other in dark rooms. While over 300,000 brave men waited for evacuation as the German army closed in around them, Winston Churchill had just been sworn in as prime minister and was left with the unenvious task of dealing with Adolf Hitler, a man Churchill's predecessor Neville Chamberlain had been hoping to strike a peace deal with. As history tells it, Churchill knew the futility of trying to reason with a murderous tyrant and that the only outcome was war, but he had to rally his cabinet and deal with the Dunkirk situation at the same time.

Simply put, Darkest Hour is pure Oscar-bait. Ignoring the question of why yet another biopic of one of Britain's most iconic historic figures is needed in a year that had already seen the Brian Cox-starring Churchill, this is another shameless entry into the ongoing series of middlebrow British period dramas which also include fellow awards-favourites The Queen and The King's Speech. Sparing us the full biopic treatment, Darkest Hour starts in 1940 just as Churchill is chosen to lead the country in the wake of Chamberlain's ousting. Played by Gary Oldman in heavy prosthetics, the man who enjoys champagne with his breakfast and dictates his letters still dressed in his pyjamas charges into the situation like a bull in a china shop, out-shouting those who attempt to fast-track peace talks or undermine him. It's a good performance, and one that will almost definitely win Oldman an overdue Best Actor award. But it still feels like an impression, and despite some attempts to humanise the man with moments of self-doubt, we never break the tough, saggy surface.

Joe Wright has touched on the events of Dunkirk before with 2007's Atonement, a surprisingly moving and powerful love story that featured an impressive tracking shot along the battered beach. Atonement felt like it was created by a film-maker, while Darkest Hour feels like it was sculpted by a committee hoping to overcrowd their posters with lists of their awards nominations. It feels artificial to the point of patronising, with long shots of the smiling working class going about their business as Churchill cruises by trying to get a feel of the public's mood. This is later taken even further he ventures into the London underground on his own to chat with the common folk in a scene that is so out of place it feels like nails down a blackboard. Even worse are the brief moments of battle. CGI bombs are dropped and followed by the camera in a scene that harks back to Pearl Harbor. Impressive supporting turns by Ben Mendelsohn as King George IV and Ronald Pickip as a sympathetic, terminally-ill Chamberlain lighten the mood, while Kristen Scott Thomas, Lily James and Stephen Dillane do the most with what they are given as supportive wife, framing device and sneering villain, respectively. In these times of political uncertainty, Darkest Hour should have had me waving my fist with patriotic pride, but I could barely muster a twitch of the eyebrow.


Directed by: Joe Wright
Starring: Gary Oldman, Kristin Scott Thomas, Ben Mendelsohn, Lily James, Ronald Pickup, Stephen Dillane
Country: USA/UK

Rating: **

Tom Gillespie

Review #238: 'Hanna' (2011)

11 year-old Hanna (Saoirse Ronan) lives in the wilderness with her father Erik (Eric Bana). He teaches her to hunt, fight, and basically fend for herself. As Hanna grows restless in isolation, she puts in motion a plan that the two have seemingly been planning for years. She pushes a button, alerting CIA agent Marissa (Cate Blanchett) to their whereabouts. While Erik leaves, Hanna waits and is captured. After being questioned, Hanna kills who she believes to be Marissa and escapes her prison. She finds herself in Saudi Arabia where she befriends a hippy-ish English family, where is pursued by Marissa and her hired goons.

If the story of a young, jail-bait assassin kicking the arse of anyone in her path sounds familiar, it would be easy to make comparisons to Chloe Moretz's Hit-Girl in Kick-Ass (2010). But this is a very different animal. Where Kick-Ass was cartoonish and over-the-top in its (very enjoyable) gory action scenes, Hanna takes more of a dramatic route, combined with characteristics of a modern-day fairytale. This approach works both for and against the film, as although its approach is individual and quite refreshing, it is also confused and often slapdash in its execution.

I'll start with the good, which there is plenty of. The cast is splendid - Bana and Blanchett are long established solid actors with an impressive backlog of films so they do what is expected of them. Blanchett hams it up with a ridiculous Southern American accent, and she manages to out-sexy her performance in the recent Indiana Jones And The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008). Ronan, who so impressed in director Joe Wright's excellent Atonement (2007), strides confidently through another great performance, mixing steely coldness with a wide-eyed innocence as she struggles with this brave new world full of televisions, lights and kettles. And Tom Hollander, a seemingly strange choice for a heavy, is amazingly horrific as a crowbar-wielding, transsexual strip-club owner with a liking for terrible tracksuits.

While I was expecting an all-out action film before pressing play, I was pleased with the way the film told Hanna's story. Instead of filling it with action scenes, it takes it's time to show Hanna's discovery of the world, and sweet friendship with Sophie (Jessica Barden). When she joins Sophie's parents Rachel (Olivia Williams) and Sebastian (Jason Flemyng), she discovers boys, dancing, and what she has longed for the most - music. Her father regularly read from an encyclopaedia so she can learn the things of the world, but music cannot be truly described in words, and this is one of the main reasons she initially chooses to leave her sheltered life.

Joe Wright, traditionally more at home with period pieces such as Atonement and Pride & Prejudice (2005), struggles with the action scenes. While they are accompanied by a thumping score by The Chemical Brothers, he never really finds a certain style. Sometimes it is fast hand-to-hand to combat filmed on shaky-cam like the Bourne (2002-2007) films; sometimes the camera will be swirling all over the place; one time it is filmed in ultra slo-mo like an operatic tragedy. Wright even attempts something similar to his one-shot Dunkirk scene in Atonement, tracking Bana from a train station into the underground where he disposes of a gang of agents. While it may sound good to differ the style, it does unsteady the tone of the film, especially when played against the quieter, more tender moments.

Hanna is certainly interesting and I would certainly recommend it to anyone looking for something a bit different from the usual action film, but ultimately it becomes nothing more than an appealing oddity. Ronan is certainly an actress to watch, and Joe Wright will have done no damage to his growing reputation here, and will undoubtedly go from strength to strength.


Directed by: Joe Wright
Starring: Saoirse Ronan, Eric Bana, Cate Blanchett, Tom Hollander, Jessica Barden, Olivia Williams, Jason Flemyng
Country: USA/UK/Germany

Rating: ***

Tom Gillespie