Gary Oldman imitates Churchill perfectly, but he never gets to the soul of the character.
During the early days of World War II, the fate of Western Europe hangs on the newly-appointed British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, who must decide whether to negotiate with Hitler, or fight on against incredible odds.
The fourth Churchill film in 2 years offer very little new insight into the man or his actions. However, the script writing and cinematography are both vastly better than any of the previous films. It is undeniably impressive the lengths the hair and makeup team went to to make Gary Oldman look like Churchill. My problem lies within the fact I don’t think Oldman is acting, he’s merely imitating iconic videos and broadcasts for 2hrs. It isn’t believable to the audience that he actually is invested in his own actions. The rest of the cast were exceptional though, Kristen Scott Thomas and Lily James were both standouts, as was Australian Ben Mendlesohn.
Overall the most conventional of this year’s Oscar films has some redeeming elements, but doesn’t live up to the hype.
3 Stars
Review by Benjamin Maio Mackay
Screening courtesy of Universal Entertainment