Darkest Hour is the most commanding performance of Gary Oldman’s career

YOU wouldn’t recognise this British thespian under all those prosthetics, but Gary Oldman still manages to give one of the best performances of his career.

UNDERNEATH the heavy prosthetics, that bulbous forehead and rotund jowls, is Gary Oldman giving one of the most commanding performances of his career.

As the prickly and idiosyncratic Winston Churchill, Oldman disappears into the role of the formidable and legendary Prime Minister, calling up all the bluster, rage and odd quirks of the man many Britons credit with pulling the country through World War II.

Churchill is having a bit of a moment. Last year, American actor John Lithgow put to screen one of the most definitive portrayals of the PM in the first season of The Crown, picking up a swag of awards along the way. Six months ago, Brian Cox also took on the role in Churchill, though to lesser acclaim.

Christopher Nolan closed out Dunkirk with audio of the PM’s famous “We shall fight on the beaches” speech looped over the last scenes.

Director Joe Wright’s Darkest Hour almost functions as a companion piece to Dunkirk. Where Nolan’s film was focused on the evacuation, this movie looks at the other side, of the politics and war strategy being fought out at home.

Oldman disappears into Churchill

Starting off with the resignation of Neville Chamberlain (Ronald Pickup) and the begrudging ascension of Churchill to office, the film establishes that Churchill is not popular among his colleagues — he got the job because he was the only viable candidate everyone could stomach.

Churchill’s past mistakes are constantly whispered about by his colleagues to undermine him — this includes Chamberlain and we all know what happens when a former PM hangs around like a bitter ex-boyfriend.

Chamberlain and Foreign Secretary Lord Halifax (Stephen Dillane) are agitating for negotiations with Hitler, convinced of Britain’s impending loss. The pair also engages in political machinations to have Churchill replaced.

Churchill steadfastly refuses to give an inch to Hitler (“Victory at all costs”) even though Britain’s war campaign is looking grim — the troops are stuck and outflanked in Dunkirk and without their return there will be no one to defend the homeland. There’s even discussion of evacuating King George VI (Ben Mendelsohn) and his family to Canada should Hitler’s forces come any closer.

Some of the most compelling scenes involve the uneasy relationship between Churchill and King George and their power tussle.

Ben Mendelsohn is an unexpectedly delightful King George VI

Darkest Hour is a solid historical biopic, smartly contained to a few weeks in the timeline which creates tension in the story. Wright composes lovely shots and his attention to detail in terms of the costumes and art direction is first class.

He has a deft touch for period films, honed through the likes of Pride & Prejudice and Anna Karenina. His adaptation of Atonement also took place during the WWII era and he even filmed an extraordinary five-minute one-shot take of the chaos on the beaches of Dunkirk for that film.

But as far as the overall package goes, Darkest Hour is kind of just proficient, a perfectly competent and effective period film with stirring music and stirring speeches. What elevates it is Oldman’s full-bodied, tour-de-force performance — he is that good.

Churchill is insolent, petulant and arrogant. He’s disagreeable and not an easy person to like. But you do root for him because Oldman makes you root for him. For that alone, Darkest Hour is worth your time.

Rating: 4/5

Darkest Hour is in cinemas from Thursday, January 11.

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Originally published as Darkest Hour is the most commanding performance of Gary Oldman’s career