{"id":4935,"date":"2017-12-22T15:05:52","date_gmt":"2017-12-22T22:05:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/?p=4935"},"modified":"2017-12-22T15:05:52","modified_gmt":"2017-12-22T22:05:52","slug":"review-darkest-hour","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/?p=4935","title":{"rendered":"Review: DARKEST HOUR"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"\"\"Not to be confused with \u201cDunkirk,\u201d the stunning evacuation narrative that briefly masquerades as a war film, \u201cDarkest Hour\u201d is more about a singular powerful performance rather than telling a cohesive and satisfying story. Playing very much like the pilot of an epic television mini-series, Gary Oldman plays Winston Churchill in the early days of his administration as British Prime Minister.<\/p>\n

The story covers the Dunkirk events through the eyes of Churchill as he navigates the political blockades to realizing his conservative vision. We know that that vision was integral to ultimately winning the war, but this film isn\u2019t interested in providing us with enough context to fully appreciate the unusual character of the historic leader. \u201cDarkest Hour\u201d is but a snapshot and maybe not the one that acts as the most compelling basis for a feature film.<\/p>\n

Everyone in the cast is mighty fine with Lily James playing Churchill\u2019s secretary, Kristin Scott Thomas as wife Clemmie, Stephen Dillane as Viscount Halifax, and Ben Mendelsohn inhabiting Kind George VI. Mendelsohn is especially good in the role that previously won Colin Firth the Oscar in \u201cThe King\u2019s Speech.\u201d<\/p>\n

No doubt this movie suffers from comparison to other World War II era projects, namely this year\u2019s \u201cDunkirk,\u201d but also television series, like \u201cThe Crown\u201d that focuses on Churchill later in life. And to add to the televisual nature of the whole affair, \u201cDarkest Hour\u201d ends abruptly, which would have been an excellent cliffhanger for episode two had this been a BBC series. Nevertheless, Oldman is superb in the lead and should find himself competing for the golden statute.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Oldman is good, the film is lacking but not without interest<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4935","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews","no-thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4935","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4935"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4935\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4938,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4935\/revisions\/4938"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4935"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4935"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4935"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}