One Life

Giving this an 8/10 rating Another film this week, based on true events, with Anthony Hopkins showing that while there is good work out there, he is more than up to the task. Johnny Flynn plays his the younger version of the Hopkins character, set in World War 2, and is proper good. Helena Bonham Carter, Lena Olin, Samantha Spiro, Romola Garai and all the cast are not wasted at all, they all deliver in this quite extraordinary story of and impossible task that happened. Did hate the 1980's and they capture it's plainness too well. That's a good thing, the script is very simple with it zipping along at a calm pace that suits the film, The bleakness of the look during the second world war is a tribute to the great sets, costumes and production design. Soft sound, no real bangs, but still there is the Nazi evil and grief that is quite plain too see. Anthony Hopkins is the main selling point here and he does what he does with the role which is gentle and he can do this kind of thing effortlessly.

This film embodies a sluggish and aged pace in its essence, script, and directorial execution. "Being based on a true story" seems to serve as a shield for mediocrity, with directors and scriptwriters perhaps under the impression that as long as the source material is captivating, there's no need to invest additional effort in refining the film's narrative. The entire cinematic experience resembles a VCR recording of an awards ceremony more than a skilfully crafted narrative. It adopts a stagnant rhythm, a narrative lacking any dramatic tension, characters with unmotivated actions and lacking depth, historical details superficially addressed, and an art direction reminiscent of uninspiring television. What proves particularly irksome is the excessive inclusion of tedious dialogues where characters repetitively exchange information already established in previous scenes. It feels as if they are attempting to stretch a 60-minute VCR into a forced 110-minute television drama. After viewing, I checked the director's portfolio and unsurprisingly found little to no experience in film creation-almost exclusively television dramas.

I cannot say other than that it is a wonderful true war story, however poorly and lazily written with no build-up of characters. There is no explanation or background of why the main character is doing this. I would have liked it if they had shown something of his childhood, some psychological reason why he is so driven to save these people, in order to get more into the story as a viewing audience. It feels uncomfortable though to give a low rating because the story per se does touch me, especially that survivors helped to make the film, and played along with the film themselves. I think the disappointment was mainly that this was necessary to feel emotion for the story, rather than a talent-written piece.

The story of Nicholas Winton, who saved hundreds of children from the Nazis just before the start of WW2 by organising trains from Czechoslovakia to the UK, is very much a story worth telling, especially as he was essentially a modest hero, one who didn't even think he deserved recognition, which makes his story all the more moving as it unfolds in flashback from late 70s Britain as Winton, superbly portrayed by Anthony Hopkins, remembers the events of the late 1930s. Of course, there have been so many WW2 dramas over the years, so I felt the pre-war scenes do somewhat lack tension and a certain freshness, but good direction and succinct writing do calmly and absorbingly set the scene, explaining those earlier events well, but we also follow the way that 40 years later the heroic efforts of Winton and his colleagues were finally revealed and celebrated, ultimately making it a truly moving and revealing film. Perhaps, considering how things look today, it's also a reminder of how good really can triumph over evil and cynicism, and it's finally a superb tribute to a remarkable man.