Darkest Hour

Whenever anything to do with WWII comes up, I am always taken back to my childhood.  Both my parents were in the war, and Mum especially like to let her thoughts about what happened be known.  As a result I know Churchill almost as well as Wilson and Heath, the prime ministers I grew up with.  It will be interesting to see how he is portrayed, I thought, and that was really the primary reason to see the film.  So I'll start with those comments.
Firstly, the make-up department need to be congratulated - Gary Oldman looks like Winston Churchill throughout the film.  There was only one scene, about mid-way through, a sideways shot from behind - just for that instance I doubted.  He acts like Churchill too, and if he gets any awards for this role he deserves them.
How 'true' the story is, I have too little knowledge to judge, but it seemed pretty realistic.  So from that point of view it is an impressive film.  I'm hoping it is accurate, if so I have learnt some things I didn't know:

• How much Atlee was supported by his party
• How keen the Labour party were to fight
• How much the pressure on Churchill, and the desire to get rid of him nearly bought the war to the wrong end.

Having recently seen Dunkirk, the peril of the entire British army was very apparent, and the understanding of the need to rescue them very clear.  That was well portrayed here too, so was the loss of the garrison at Calais.  Those scenes showed the relationship between his secretary - Elizabeth Layton (Lily James) and the prime minister.
Much has been made in the media of Kristen Scott-Thomas and Clementine Churchill, however, I thought that Lily James did a better job and had more real acting to do, portraying a woman, initially scared of Churchill, to one of his greatest supporters - miming parts of his speeches.

Of course, we know the end, so I don't really have to say more.  The film simply illustrates the power of words well spoken - Churchill was a master of that skill.

Recently there have been some excellent films, and this is one of the most excellent.  Well worth a view.