--- title: "Darkest Hour" year: 2017 kind: "film" canonical: "https://film.one/film/darkest-hour" fi1m_score: 66 critics_score: 72 critics_reviews: 25 published: "2026-09-20T07:56:29.797616+00:00" updated: "2026-09-20T07:56:30.152822+00:00" region: "US" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Darkest Hour (2017) Directed by Joe Wright · 2h 05m · MPA PG-13 · Drama, History **Fi1m score: 66** · Critics 72 from 25 reviews *In a sentence:* Gary Oldman argues with a room full of pale grey men and wins the same argument six times > Gary Oldman’s Churchill is cruel, funny, frightened and impossible to look away from, and Joe Wright keeps two hours of talk moving. But Anthony McCarten’s script makes the same point six times and never once asks whether the great man might be wrong. ## Synopsis London, May 1940. Neville Chamberlain (Ronald Pickup) has lost the confidence of the House of Commons and must go. Viscount Halifax (Stephen Dillane) declines the job, and the only man both parties will accept is Winston Churchill (Gary Oldman), distrusted by his own side and by King George VI (Ben Mendelsohn). Churchill takes office from his bed, dictating to a new typist, Elizabeth Layton (Lily James), while his wife Clemmie (Kristin Scott Thomas) tells him to mind his temper. Across the Channel the German army is cutting through France and the British Expeditionary Force is falling back on the coast at Dunkirk. In the war cabinet, Halifax and Chamberlain press for peace talks through Italy; Churchill wants to fight, and has not yet worked out how to say so to the country. ## Review Joe Wright’s film covers about three weeks of May 1940, from the night Neville Chamberlain loses the confidence of the Commons to the day Winston Churchill tells the House that Britain will fight on the beaches. Anthony McCarten’s script keeps the war offstage and the argument indoors: will the new Prime Minister hold his nerve while the men around him press him to ask for terms? The performance at its centre is better than the script it serves. Gary Oldman is worth the ticket. The rest is decent and repeats itself. Oldman plays Churchill under a great deal of prosthetic and it takes about one scene to stop noticing. He begins the day in bed with a tray, a cigar and a whisky, shouts at his new typist Elizabeth Layton (Lily James) for single-spacing a page, and then goes off to be made Prime Minister by a King who plainly wishes it were anyone else. The voice is a mumble with edges, and Oldman uses the pauses as much as the words. What surprised us was how frightened he lets the man be. Alone in the lift down to the war rooms, this Churchill looks like someone who suspects he may be wrong and cannot afford to say so, and that moved us more than any of the speeches. Wright and his cinematographer Bruno Delbonnel shoot Whitehall as if it were already underground. Corridors are lit by single lamps, ministers sit half in shadow, and daylight arrives through high windows in hard white shafts that nobody stands in for long. Sarah Greenwood’s war rooms are low, cluttered and yellowing, all telephones and pinned maps, and Jacqueline Durran dresses the appeasers in greys so pale they seem to be fading out of the picture. Dario Marianelli’s score runs on a piano figure that never settles, which is right for a film about waiting for news. Stephen Dillane’s Halifax is the best of the supporting cast, a cold, reasonable man who believes peace talks are the only responsible course; the film is fairest when he is on screen. Ronald Pickup plays Chamberlain as a tired man already ill, and Ben Mendelsohn gives George VI a wary stiffness that thaws in one good late scene. Kristin Scott Thomas, as Clemmie, gets to be dry about her husband’s temper and not much else. James’s Layton is our way into the building, and the script forgets to give her anything to want. The trouble is that McCarten has one scene and writes it six times. Halifax proposes talks through Italy, Churchill refuses, somebody reminds him about Gallipoli, and then he makes a speech. Valerio Bonelli cuts these exchanges briskly, but by the fourth war cabinet we could predict who would speak next. Churchill’s failings are named only so that his resolve can be admired more, and the film never asks whether a man this sure of himself might have been a danger in a different month. The speeches are the set pieces, and Wright stages them like engagements. The camera circles the despatch box, Delbonnel drops the benches into near-darkness, and Oldman’s voice comes up from somewhere near the floor before it fills the chamber. They work. We were stirred, and a little uneasy about it, because the film has spent the previous hour arranging for us to be. Wright’s [*Atonement*](https://film.one/film/atonement) (2007) put the camera on the beach at Dunkirk for one long unbroken shot; here Dunkirk is a name on a map and a few glimpses from the air. He has never let a room stay still, and here that mostly helps. Set beside Christopher Nolan’s [*Dunkirk*](https://film.one/film/dunkirk) (2017), which shows the beaches and never mentions the politics, this is a tidy companion piece and the lesser film. See it for Oldman, who gives us a man where a monument would have done for most audiences, and see it knowing the script will explain the same thing several times. It runs 125 minutes and carries a PG, so the war stays out of shot and the arguing stays in. *Fi1m score 66, published 20 September 2026.* ## What the critics say Most critics like it, and for the same reason. Gary Oldman’s Churchill draws praise across the board: bluster and frailty in one body, a performance that most reviews say goes past caricature. Joe Wright’s direction is the second point of agreement, with several reviews admiring the noirish lighting and the energy he brings to a film set mostly in rooms. Several critics treat it as a natural companion to Dunkirk. The reservations are about everything around the performance. Some find Wright’s style too busy, with The Times complaining that the slow motion and swooping camera rob the film of weight. A cluster of British reviews single out an invented scene on the London Underground as cheesy enough to damage the whole. Slant and The Ringer think the film flatters its hero and adds little insight. The spread is narrow, with no outright pans, and The AV Club stands alone in finding Oldman’s prosthetic performance the weak spot rather than the strength. ### Reviews we read (25) - **IndieWire**, David Ehrlich (90/100, inferred): An electric chamber piece that complements Dunkirk, with Gary Oldman delivering a rousing and ferocious performance as Churchill. The film is a taut, stylish biopic centered on Churchill's early days as prime minister. [Read](https://www.indiewire.com/features/general/darkest-hour-review-gary-oldman-winston-churchill-telluride-1201872512/) - **RogerEbert.com**, Godfrey Cheshire (90/100, inferred): The critic finds the historical drama electrifying and compares it favorably to other standout films, praising its intellectual engagement with history alongside thrilling storytelling. Oldman's performance and the film's direction, cinematography, and script are singled out for particular acclaim. [Read](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/darkest-hour-2017) - **The Independent** (★★★★☆): Oldman delivers a phenomenal, bravura performance as Churchill that goes beyond caricature to show a devious, resilient and guilt-ridden figure. Wright shoots the chamber drama in a noirish style with visual flourishes and crafts a nuanced portrait that largely avoids jingoism. [Read](https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/film-reviews-roundup-darkest-hour-my-life-story-a-woman-s-life-eric-clapton-a-life-in-12-bars-the-brawler-a8151161.html) - **Empire**, Dan Jolin (85/100, inferred): Oldman gives the performance of a lifetime as Churchill, bringing bombast, bluster and empathetic frailty to the role in a way that makes every moment a joy. Wright brings visual flair to the interior drama with noirish lighting and motifs while keeping the focus on Churchill's internal conflict. [Read](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/darkest-hour-2-review/) - **Variety**, Peter Debruge (85/100, inferred): Gary Oldman delivers one of his greatest performances as Churchill, making the character human and nuanced. Joe Wright's cinematic direction is celebrated for balancing public triumphs with private vulnerability in a compelling, populist history lesson. [Read](https://variety.com/2017/film/reviews/darkest-hour-review-gary-oldman-1202545711/) - **Film Comment**, Michael Sragow (80/100, inferred): The critic commends Gary Oldman's transformative portrayal of Churchill and Joe Wright's dynamic direction that treats politics as warfare, while noting the film's propulsive style can feel wearying at times. Oldman's ability to convey both zeal and fragility stands out. [Read](https://www.filmcomment.com/deep-focus-darkest-hour/) - **Radio Times**, Damon Wise (★★★★): The critic calls it a near-perfect companion to Dunkirk, praising Oldman's sensational performance as Churchill while noting some Hollywood pitfalls like an absurd Tube scene and underused supporting actress. [Read](https://www.radiotimes.com/movies/darkest-hour-oldman-is-never-less-than-sensational/) - **The Telegraph**, Robbie Collin (4/5): Gary Oldman delivers an amazement of a performance as Churchill that metabolises the icon and has the power to galvanise, in a film that demonstrates the value of strong leadership in crisis. [Read](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/films/0/darkest-hour-review-gary-oldmans-churchill-will-galvanise-nation/) - **Vulture** (75/100, inferred): The film offers a verbose, stylish behind-the-scenes look at Churchill's early premiership that complements Dunkirk, emphasizing big themes of perseverance through Wright's visual flair and Oldman's performance. It builds myths and functions best as entertaining propaganda with a grain of salt. [Read](https://www.vulture.com/2017/11/darkest-hour-review.html) - **Los Angeles Times**, Kenneth Turan (70/100, inferred): Oldman's bulldog performance as Churchill is praised as convincing and humanizing, elevating the film despite the director's high-energy, showy style that sometimes feels overwrought. The review notes the energetic direction by Joe Wright but finds it occasionally excessive for the material. [Read](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/la-et-mn-darkest-hour-review-20171121-story.html) - **The AV Club**, Ignatiy Vishnevetsky (B-): Joe Wright's visually busy, theatrical direction makes the film watchable despite its hagiographic tendencies and lack of real insight. Gary Oldman's prosthetic, cartoonish performance as Churchill is the weak spot in an otherwise enjoyable prestige biopic. [Read](https://www.avclub.com/gary-oldman-struggles-to-lead-joe-wrights-eye-catching-1820610600) - **The Hollywood Reporter**, Todd McCarthy (70/100, inferred): The film is a snappy, straightforward crowd-pleaser focused on Churchill rising to the occasion against appeasers in Parliament. Gary Oldman's robust, boisterous performance as Churchill stands out as a highlight. [Read](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-reviews/darkest-hour-review-1034823/) - **The New York Times**, A.O. Scott (70/100, inferred): The film is viewed as a solid if somewhat conventional biopic that offers insights into Churchill's early days as prime minister. The critic notes its focus on statecraft and doubt but highlights Gary Oldman's transformative performance as the standout element. [Read](https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/21/movies/darkest-hour-review-gary-oldman.html) - **Evening Standard**, Matthew Norman (60/100, inferred): Oldman dominates with a tour-de-force portrayal that captures Churchill's arrogance, frailty and oratorical power, making the film a strong vehicle for his talent. The contrived fictional Tube scene undermines the script and reduces a momentous historical moment to cheap manipulation. [Read](https://www.standard.co.uk/culture/film/darkest-hour-review-an-effective-vehicle-for-gary-oldmans-talent-a3738421.html) - **Sight and Sound**, Philip Kemp (60/100, inferred): The critic praises Gary Oldman's convincing portrayal of Churchill but criticizes the film for an absurd underground train scene that undermines the whole endeavor. [Read](https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/reviews/darkest-hour-review-gary-oldman-convinces-winston-churchill) - **The Guardian** (60/100, inferred): The film works best as a celebration of stirring oratory but is packed with blustering old blokes and hampered by contrived scenes like Churchill on the London Underground. [Read](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2018/jan/14/darkest-hour-review-gary-oldman-kristin-scott-thomas-churchill) - **The i Paper**, Matthew Turner (★★★): Oldman makes the role his own with a versatile, awards-worthy performance full of mischief, vulnerability and bluster. The talky script feels repetitive with no standout set-pieces, the direction lacks imagination, and the invented Underground scene is supremely cheesy. [Read](https://inews.co.uk/culture/film/darkest-hour-review-gary-oldman-116885) - **Slant Magazine**, Jake Cole (2/4): Wright's film reinforces only the most simplistic and patriotic vision of Churchill, sanitizing the figure and avoiding any real intellectual or historical challenges. While some supporting performances add nuance, the overall treatment remains underdeveloped and propagandistic. [Read](https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/darkest-hour/) - **The Times** (50/100, inferred): Gary Oldman’s fine Churchill performance has to fight against Joe Wright’s busy directing full of slow motion, swish pans and aerial shots that rob the film of gravity. [Read](https://www.thetimes.com/culture/theatre-dance/article/film-review-darkest-hour-gary-oldman-kristin-scott-thomas-three-billboards-outside-ebbing-missouri-w6hj0bnh3) - **Collider**, Adam Chitwood (B+): The critic praises Gary Oldman's astounding, transformative performance as Churchill and Joe Wright's vital direction for elevating the political drama. They single out the specific focus on Churchill's leadership during a key wartime period and the strong supporting craft. [Read](https://collider.com/darkest-hour-review-gary-oldman/) - **Den of Geek**, Edward Douglas (4/5): Praises the film as a strong companion to Dunkirk, highlighting the screenplay's handling of historical fiction and Oldman's convincing performance. Notes Wright's ability to keep the talky film engaging without dull moments. [Read](https://www.denofgeek.com/movies/darkest-hour-review-2/) - **The Wrap**, Robert Abele (75/100, inferred): The film is an entertaining reminder of principled leadership in crisis, with Churchill's rousing speeches and Oldman's vibrant performance as its highlights. Wright's flamboyant direction is enjoyable but occasionally over-stylized, tipping into mythic silliness in places. [Read](https://www.thewrap.com/darkest-hour-film-review-gary-oldman-winston-churchill/) - **/Film**, Chris Evangelista (7/10): Oldman gives a magnificent, humanizing performance as the conflicted Churchill. The film is a powerful but not flawless historical drama that avoids stuffy staging through strong direction and focus on key relationships. [Read](https://www.slashfilm.com/553245/darkest-hour-review/) - **The Ringer**, K. Austin Collins (65/100, inferred): The critic finds Gary Oldman's technically astonishing and charismatic performance as Churchill well worth the attention, but feels Joe Wright's film struggles to match it or add much depth beyond flattering the hero. They single out the performance's energy and the film's repetitive focus on political maneuvering. [Read](https://www.theringer.com/2017/11/28/movies/darkest-hour-film-review-gary-oldman-winston-churchill) - **HeyUGuys**, Stefan Pape (3/5): Oldman delivers a career-best, nuanced performance as Churchill that elevates the film. The biopic treads familiar ground with clichéd elements and lacks fresh insight. [Read](https://www.heyuguys.com/darkest-hour-review/) ## Details - **Director:** Joe Wright - **Director:** Joe Wright - **Screenplay:** Anthony McCarten - **Cinematography:** Bruno Delbonnel - **Editor:** Valerio Bonelli - **Music:** Dario Marianelli - **Production design:** Sarah Greenwood - **Costume design:** Jacqueline Durran - **Producer:** Tim Bevan, Douglas Urbanski, Lisa Bruce - **Cast:** Gary Oldman as Winston Churchill; Stephen Dillane as Viscount Halifax; Lily James as Elizabeth Layton; Ronald Pickup as Neville Chamberlain; Ben Mendelsohn as King George VI; Kristin Scott Thomas as Clemmie; Nicholas Jones as Sir John Simon; Samuel West as Sir Anthony Eden - **Runtime:** 2h 05m - **Certificate (MPA):** PG-13 - **Release (the US):** 22 December 2017 - **Genres:** Drama, History - **Also in:** [Best Picture winners](https://film.one/collections/oscar-best-picture.md) (Nominee, 2017); [BAFTA Best Film winners](https://film.one/collections/bafta-best-film.md) (Nominee, 2017) - **Budget:** $30 million - **Box office:** $151 million - **Trailer:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQAYFbcgf60 ## Where to watch in the US - Amazon Prime Video: rent $3.99, uhd - Apple TV: rent $3.99, hd - Amazon Prime Video: buy $12.99, uhd - Apple TV: buy $12.99, hd *Checked 2026-09-20.* Also available in: AE, AR, AT, AU, BE, BG, BR, CA, CH, CL, CO, CZ, DE, DK, EE, ES, FI, FR, GB, GR, HK, HU, ID, IE, IL, IN, IT, JP, KR, LT, MX, MY, NL, NO, NZ, PA, PH, PL, PT, RO, RS, SE, SG, TH, TR, UA, US, VN, ZA. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country. ## Awards - Academy Awards 2018: Best Cinematography (nominated); Best Costume Design (nominated); Best Picture (nominated); Best Production Design (nominated); Best Actor (won); Best Makeup and Hairstyling (won) - European Film Award – People's Choice Award for Best European Film 2018: European Film Award – People's Choice Award for Best European Film (nominated) ## If you liked this - *Dunkirk* (2017), Fi1m 86: The other half of the same month: the beaches this film keeps offstage. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/dunkirk.md) - *Downfall* (2004), Fi1m 81: The bunker on the other side, five years later, with none of the comfort. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/downfall.md) - *Lincoln* (2012), Fi1m 82: Another statesman, another month of vote-counting and speeches, played with more patience by Daniel Day-Lewis. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/lincoln.md) - *Il Divo* (2008): Sorrentino’s Andreotti: a political portrait that dares to find its subject sinister. - *Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy* (2011), Fi1m 84: Oldman at the opposite volume, saying almost nothing in grey rooms. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/tinker-tailor-soldier-spy.md) --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/film/darkest-hour