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?

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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.