You know it is awards’ season when epic films such as Darkest Hour are out in full force. This British war drama, featuring an ensemble cast of mostly English talent such as Gary Oldman (Winston Churchill), Kristin Scott Thomas (Clementine Churchill), Ben Mendelson (George VI), Lily James (Elizabeth Layton), Ronald Pickup (Neville Chamberlain) and Stephen Dillane (Edward Wood, Earl of Halifax), takes a look at the opening act of legendary Prime Minister Winston Churchill’s reign after Nazi Germany’s devastating progress early in the Second World War. That advance by Nazi Germany saw most Western European nations losing and left Britain staring down the barrel.

Some have accused Darkest Hour of being Oscar bait, albeit a delicious variety, but this would be selling it short. Sure, there are some of the usual trappings of a film released during voting time, but none insult the audience’s intelligence. Darkest Hour is a wonderfully constructed drama that pulls at your heartstrings, but subtly, and only in harmony with the build-up. What’s more, it is also at times incredibly suspenseful, and paints a harrowing picture of war without exhibiting much bloodshed.

Personally, I found myself growing emotional on multiple occasions during the film’s many goose bump-inducing scenes and even subconsciously pumped my fist during the finale. The packed house of, what I suspect were, liberals of the most liberal variety, were cheering at every rousing word from Churchill, and clapping periodically during his last speech in the film — a speech that history recognises as one of the greatest of all time.

Darkest Hour is a wonderfully constructed drama that subtly pulls at your heartstrings

Of course, Churchill was a fantastic orator and Oldman makes every one of his words his own in an utterly remarkable performance. I feel that Darkest Hour took a huge risk in casting the actor, who has displayed his talent in a number of acclaimed supporting performances but never in something of this magnitude. In a character-driven film all about Churchill, the casting decision was a make-or-break one. Oldman not only runs with the ball, he runs circles around the stadium. The veteran actor captures the mannerisms, oozing charisma, powerful oration and the vulnerabilities of the leader.

Some of the film’s other stars are David Malinowski, Ivana Primorac, Lucy Sibbick, and Kazuhiro Tsuji, who were in charge of the make-up and hair in Darkest Hour and transformed Oldman into a near image of Churchill. Again, had their work been below par, it would have broken the film. Think back to Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom (2013) where Idris Elba’s earnest efforts as the iconic leader were forgotten because of the awful job by the make-up team, which left Elba looking less like Mandela and more like an old man who had been in a horrific head-on collision with a cake factory.

The other good performance in Darkest Hour comes from Lily James who plays Churchill’s secretary and gives the audience an everyman perspective. I liked her chemistry with Oldman and enjoyed their sweet father-daughter type relationship.

Interestingly enough, there are some experts who believe that Churchill suffered from bipolar disorder. Certain historians even suggest that it is his manic state of mind that made him such a fantastic leader during wartime, and it is why he lost popularity the moment the war ended. Learning about Churchill’s mental health made me draw parallels with a certain politician in Pakistan who also is a good speaker, seems to have a lot of manic energy that perhaps hasn’t been diagnosed, and appears to revel in the chaos of his own creation, maybe because that’s when he is in his comfort zone. Thankfully for Churchill, he was put in a situation where his frantic energy was put to excellent use.

Rated PG-13 for some thematic material

Published in Dawn, ICON, January 28th, 2018