Darkest Hour

          Darkest Hour is a biopic about Winston Churchill (played by Gary Oldman) and his first months in office as Prime Minister. He's thrown into the chaos of World War II and suddenly has to deal with the situation at Dunkirk and decide whether or not to enter into peace negotiations or fight the Nazi's head on. He struggles with the latter because he is stuck in this fantasy that fighting with "everything you got" is the best way to deal with it. One of the quotes he gives is "you can not reason with a tiger when your head is already in its mouth!" He eventually becomes more open-minded to the idea of negotiations, but he still struggles to figure out how to save the soldiers at Dunkirk. He establishes Operation Dynamo which does end up saving the soldiers. None of this, I feel, is spoiling anything because you could open up a textbook and read about it or look it up online.
          Joe Wright directed this film and with a track record that includes both Atonement ( a lovely film) and *shivers* Pan, its surprising that this film is being praised all around, most notably for Gary Oldman's portrayal of Churchill. The makeup and hair styling is wonderful and believable. Much like Heath Ledger's Joker or Natalie Portman's Jackie, Oldmans Churchill looks like it required some method and preparation. He does a fine job at copying his speech patterns and his posture with cigars and plenty of alcohol to boot. One could say that his acting is a bit over the top, but I don't think its quite there. There's enough wit and ferocity that comes out through Oldman's performance and it's not too much.
By far my favorite part of this movie is a scene that occurs towards the end of the movie. Winston gets out of his car and walks towards the train station to ride a train. What ensues is charming and adds a dimension to his character.
          However, there were some things that confused me. Churchill's wife seems to have her own problems, but the movie never really dedicates a whole subplot to her and what we do see of her is just dangling and never really comes to a conclusion. Its just...there, but honestly, that's really my only beef with the movie.
          Overall, this film is really entertaining from beginning to end and serves as a wonderful medium for Oldman to showcase his talent. Definitely go check it out. 9.5/10