By Emilio Frenk.
Director: Jonathan Teplitzky
Cast: Brian Cox, Miranda Richardson, John Slattery, Ella Purnell, Julian Wadham, Richard Durden, James Purefoy and Danny Webb.
Rating: Poor.
Australian Director Jonathan Teplitzky, brings “Churchill”, a biopic of one of the most influential and iconic figures in British history that unfortunately the results were everything but satisfying.
Based in real life events, the movie tells the story of British Prime Minister Winston Churchill (Brian Cox) working with the American army on defeating the Nazi´s in World War II.
At the same time Churchill has an obsession of going in to the battle field with the British Army to free the French resistance but both the American and British Armies do not want Churchill to interfere and tell him to focus on his duty as Prime Minister.
Now Churchill will have to lead the country on the darkest hour and to focus on how to win the war at any cost.
One of the major problems that I saw in “Churchill” was the screenplay written by Alex Von Tunzelmann.
I felt the narrative was to vague and most of the dialogue was to on the nose. The moments where Churchill wants to fight the war and we see Brian Cox´s character scream at all times I felt it was everything but organic.
The beginning and the end of the film it was completely useless and the movie should have been focused on Churchill and D-Day.
Brian Cox´s performance as an iconic figure in British history like I mentioned it was average and I felt if the screenplay would have been written better, the performance would have been a better one.
Jonathan Tepiltzyky´s directing was not that precise. He had a very good cast at his disposal and didn´t know how to get the best of them leading to unconvincing performances.
I felt that Winston Churchill was portrayed here as a man that was showing pity and throwing fits like a child. I don´t believe that this was an ideal personification of Winston Churchill and I felt that this was because of the poor screenplay.
On a positive note both the cinematography and score where very well. I liked how David Higgs captured Winston Churchill in all his facets of both his professional and personal life and portrayed a man who had an obsession.
The score by Lorne Balfe was precise and didn´t miss any cues. I loved the way he captured some of the most emotional scenes of the film.
As a history lover I felt that if more research would have been involved, the result could have been better and the movie could have been a good one since it had huge potential.
I hope that “The Darkest Hour” starring Gary Oldman, who is going to portray Winston Churchill directed by Joe Wright is scheduled by November is a better film than this one.
With that being said “Churchill” is a disappointment and unfortunately I cannot recommend it.