This biopic of a very narrow period in Winston Churchill's life - May 1940 to be exact - was probably made to earn British actor Gary Oldman the academy award, but man, did he ever earn it! This film won Oscars for Best Actor for Oldman and for makeup, and I'd say they definitely earned that. Great trouble is taken to make sure you believe you are looking right at Sir Winston. Oldman literally disappears into the part.
The film opens with Parliament in open rebellion over Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain's failure to deal with Hitler and the opposition party demanding his resignation. Chamberlain wants Halifax to replace him, another appeasement advocate cut from the same cloth as he, but Halifax refuses saying his "time has not yet come". So Winston's party picks him literally - while holding their noses - because nobody else wants the job. And for good reason. Hitler is knocking over European countries with the ease of dominoes and the entire British army is trapped at Dunkirk, with so many damaged ships blocking the harbor that no other ship can get into it to rescue them.
Next we meet Oldman's portrayal of Sir Winston. He is a man of enormous appetites - food, drink, cigars - and sometimes tremendous temper. His spending brings him to the brink of bankruptcy multiple times. His party doesn't like him. The king resents him for how he advised his brother when he was planning to marry Wallis Simpson. And Chamberlain and Halifax STILL want to appease Hitler and because Churchill does not, they are working to undermine him, particularly with the king.
The film uses two obvious plot devices that are probably not based in fact. One is Churchill's young secretary who at first he scares to death with his tantrums, but later the two become close as he softens his approach with her . The other is a trip into a subway to get "the man on the street's opinion" about Hitler that just seems eye-rollingly over the top. There is a baby that the mother oddly says looks like Churchill, what seems like an interracial couple in 1940, and a woman who, from the way she is dressed, appears to be a socialist. Yet they to a man, to a woman, to a child, encourage Churchill to fight Hitler to the end. This fictitious event seems to be stolen from Shakespeare, but if you must steal, then steal from the best.
Honorable mention has to go to Kristen Scott Thomas as Clementine, Winston's supportive wife who is often overlooked by history. Also deserving mention is Ben Mendelsohn as King George VI, who is portraying a man much more comfortable as monarch than he was portrayed in Then King's Speech, but then this is not his story.
Yes, it is not historically accurate, but if Churchill did confront the situations and people he confronted in this film, he probably would have acted exactly as he was portrayed here.
I knock off one star for not at least TRYING to explain to the audience WHY - with Hitler obviously not trustworthy - members of Parliament would not realize the choice was between slavery and war. The answer is that WWI cost Britain a generation of young men. Literally every British young man who went to war either died or was maimed. And in the end the entire conflict seemed like it had been for nothing. And so many of the British - and more of the Americans - did not want to go through this a second time with the exact same country, not realizing until it was almost too late that the Kaiser was no Hitler.
