A thrilling and inspiring true story begins at the precipice of World War II as, within days of becoming Prime Minister of Great Britain, Winston Churchill (Academy Award nominee Gary Oldman) must face one of his most turbulent and defining trials: exploring a negotiated peace treaty with Nazi Germany, or standing firm to fight for the ideals, liberty and freedom of a nation. As the unstoppable Nazi forces roll across Western Europe and the threat of invasion is imminent, and with an unprepared public, a skeptical King, and his own party plotting against him, Churchill must withstand his darkest hour, rally a nation, and attempt to change the course of world history.

Stars  Gary Oldman, Lily James, Kristin Scott Thomas

Year 2017

That’s right. I’m making the prediction here and now that Garry Oldman will win Lead Actor for Darkest Hour. Why? Well… It’s a sort of a “you have to be there” kind of thing, but I will do my best. Starting off though I have to say, I have learned so very much from seeing this picture. I hope in the future there are more and more accurate portrayals of historical happenings to be entertained by. The film really gives you a front row seat into what Britain was going through in trying to thwart Hitler’s reign and coming dangerously close to failure. Beyond Winston Churchill the Darkest Hour is cinematically beautiful. Each scene feels very carefully crafted with tone, lighting, and environment. The transitions are something to behold also. Before I even knew it was nominated for Cinematography and Production Design I had a feeling that it would be.

Now, on to the meat and potatoes; the portrayal of Winston Churchill. If you are a fan of Gary Oldman (as so many of us are), then you know he makes for a tremendous transformation. I would bet that if you didn’t know it was him, you wouldn’t ever guess from seeing this movie. That is acting. He is Winston Churchill from the top of his voice to the staunchly walk of his walk. Apparently, he spent up to 8 hours in makeup for the role and it shows. There are many closeups of the man and not once did I question that it was a real look. I’m still to this day mystified. I’ve seen many documentaries with old footage of Churchill and Oldman absolutely mimics what I have seen. No contest.

In wrapping it up I will say that I thoroughly enjoyed myself during this. I often do like movies of this sort (The King’s Speech, Frost Nixon). They keep us in the know and give a great perspective that we might not have received from reading dusty old history books in school. Cheers to the people that worked hard on this movie and congrats to the nominations. May the best one win (but really we know it will be Oldman).  😉