Darkest Hour: The Character Story of a Crucial Moment

Biopics have to work very hard to make themselves stand out – in a world where the focus of the general moviegoing public is on superheroes, space battles, and the best fantasy CGI that cinema can offer, sometimes the true stories of people whose lives are far less fantastical than a story can pale in comparison. To combat this, biopics need two things: a main character who is larger than life, and a story with some real stakes behind it. Darkest Hour, which tells the story of the first turbulent month of Winston Churchill’s duties at Prime Minister, definitely has the first, and tries its best to convince us of the second. Because Darkest Hour is more about the figure, the stakes he faces must be conveyed through his intensity and some clever choices by the placement of the camera.

The Foreigner Needs a Focus Shift

Is Jackie Chan too old to be making these kinds of action movies? The answer is no, but someone on the set seemed to think that he was, since he was lacking in a surprising number of scenes. Chan has publicly stated that he wouldn’t mind taking a break from stunts and focusing more on a drama, and this film is definitely heavy on the drama, but he is still doing his own stunts, and watching Chan not only as a fighter but as a storyteller is exactly what this film needed to keep it afloat. It’s not perfect by any means – it would have been a lot better if the focus had been more on Chan, in all honesty – but it was able to stay decently entertaining by allowing Chan’s character to guide and craft the film to his own ends. Whether or not you are familiar with the politics that the film tries to make you interested in, just looking forward to Chan’s next move is enough to keep you invested. Maybe this isn’t a film worth a $10 film ticket, but it is definitely worth a viewing at some point.