Wright sets this up an inspiring drama, which culminates in Churchill’s watershed ‘we shall fight them on the beaches’ speech, which we also heard at the end of Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk. In fact, Darkest Hour works as a nice companion piece to that film. Unlike Nolan however, Wright opts for easy sentimentality. McCarten invents a scene in which Churchill takes the tube for the first time in his life and finds strength in the courage of ordinary Londoners. It’s so cheesy that a B-grade Bollywood director would have rejected it. But there is enough to enjoy here. Especially Oldman’s towering achievement.

Gary Oldman delivers one of the finest performances of his career in director Joe Wright’s technically brilliant but narratively flawed companion piece to Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk.

A wonderful blend of history, art and fiction, this film has the best credentials to take away all the major awards.

The biggest drawback of the movie is its speed. Crisp editing would have made a lot of difference if Wright had ignored the temptation of keeping his beloved track shots and top shots.

Gary Oldman ceases to exist with his powerful performance as the former English Prime Minister…

While the movie is competently made, its core intent appears to be to get a legendary actor his long-overdue Oscar and the film might be remembered only as “that film that won Oldman an Oscar” and not much else. You’ll remember the poignancy of the “We will fight them at the beaches” speech at the end of Dunkirk more than the elation the same speech tries to induce at the end of this movie.

Christopher Nolan beautifully presented the military side of Britain’s most vulnerable rescue mission in Dunkirk, where the narrative became the lead, Joe Wright gives it all to Oldman in Darkest Hour. You live the mission alongside Churchill, getting into his skin and his fears and sympathising with him to a point that when the last frame ends, your heart fills with pride, only to realise the massacre the real man brought in your own country. Isn’t this an example of brilliant and successful storytelling?

The Darkest Hour never quite expels  the  feeling of being a vehicle for Oldman’s virtuosity. Yes, he was born to play Churchill. But was Churchill born so that an actor as skilled as Oldman  could one day play him ?

Oldman’s Churchill is a terrific imitation, and will probably get him his first Oscar, though I’ll probably remember him as the sphinx in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy or the punk in Sid and Nancy. As for Wright, I’d take the unbroken five-minute tracking shot along the beach at Dunkirk in his Atonement over the rousing flatteries of Darkest Hour.

Gary Oldman’s performance as Winston Chirchill is undeniably entertaining…

Darkest Hour doesn’t even pretend to make it about anything else besides Oldman as he gloriously alternates between a exuberant bear, shrewd fox and vociferous lion.

Though his animal instincts hit their peak, the script itself begins to lose its edge-of-the-seat momentum and disintegrates to revel in hollow glory and glib eloquence.

Although not consistently engrossing, the film stands tall on the magnificent performance by Gary Oldman.

Darkest Hour can’t avoid comparisons with The Crown, where John Lithgow’s Churchill reluctantly confronts mortality, and faces questions regarding own leadership. Several actors from the Netflix series pop up here in crucial/similar roles.

Gary Oldman delivers one of the finest performances of his career in director Joe Wright’s technically brilliant but narratively flawed companion piece to Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk.

‘Darkest Hour’ is pretentiously flawed in its obvious award-baiting, but well produced and rousing enough thanks to Gary Oldman in one of his most impressive performances.