---
title: "One Life"
year: 2023
kind: "film"
canonical: "https://film.one/film/one-life"
fi1m_id: "one-life"
imdb_id: "tt13097932"
tmdb_id: 760774
wikidata_id: "Q114344937"
fi1m_score: 64
critics_score: 63
critics_reviews: 14
published: "2026-09-09"
updated: "2026-09-18T08:38:00.559199+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."
---

# One Life (2023)

Directed by James Hawes · 1h 49m · MPA PG · History, Drama

## Identity

One Life

- **Canonical:** https://film.one/film/one-life
- **Type:** Film
- **Fi1m ID:** one-life
- **IMDb ID:** tt13097932
- **TMDB ID:** 760774
- **Wikidata ID:** Q114344937
- **Same entity:** https://www.imdb.com/title/tt13097932/, https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/760774, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q114344937

**Fi1m score: 64** · Critics 63 from 14 reviews

*In a sentence:* Anthony Hopkins clears out a study for an hour and a half and gets us anyway

> James Hawes tells Nicholas Winton’s story plainly and without fuss, which suits the man and flattens the film. Anthony Hopkins is quietly excellent, the Prague scenes look like television, and the last ten minutes get you anyway.

## Synopsis

In 1938, Nicholas Winton (Johnny Flynn), a young London stockbroker, travels to Prague and finds refugee camps full of families who have fled the German advance. With Doreen Warriner (Romola Garai) and Trevor Chadwick (Alex Sharp) he sets about getting the children to Britain by train, while his mother Babi (Helena Bonham Carter) badgers the Home Office for visas. Nearly fifty years later the elderly Winton (Anthony Hopkins) is told by his wife Grete (Lena Olin) to clear out his study, and finds in it a scrapbook of names and photographs he has never shown anyone. James Hawes directs from a screenplay by Lucinda Coxon and Nick Drake.

## Review

In 1938 a young London stockbroker called Nicholas Winton goes to Prague for a week, sees the refugee camps filling with families who have fled the German advance, and decides to get the children out. In 1987 the same man, now old and played by Anthony Hopkins, is told by his wife to clear out his study, and finds in it a scrapbook he has not opened in half a century. James Hawes, directing his first film for cinemas from a script by Lucinda Coxon and Nick Drake, runs the two stories side by side for 109 minutes. It is a decent, careful, conventional piece of work, and the last quarter of an hour is more than that.

Hopkins is the reason to watch. He plays Winton as a man embarrassed by his own past, forever tidying it into boxes and changing the subject when it comes up, and he does most of it with his hands: sorting papers, folding a towel, closing the scrapbook a moment too quickly. His scenes with Lena Olin, as Grete, are the film’s warmest, a marriage that stopped needing to explain itself decades ago. Jonathan Pryce has a couple of scenes as Martin Blake, an old friend who knew him then, and the two of them are easy company.

The 1938 strand is where the film spends most of its time and where it is most ordinary. Johnny Flynn plays the young Winton with round spectacles, good manners and a stockbroker’s head for forms, and he is well cast: you believe this man would save children by filling in paperwork correctly. Romola Garai’s Doreen Warriner runs the relief committee like a headmistress in a crisis, Alex Sharp’s Trevor Chadwick is the one who volunteers to stay in Prague, and Helena Bonham Carter, as Winton’s mother Babi, marches through the Home Office demanding visas from men who would rather she went away. Christina Moore fills the camps with tents, mud and smoking stoves, and Joanna Eatwell puts the Britons in good wool coats among people who have sold theirs.

The trouble is that none of it frightens us. Coxon and Drake write scenes that make one point each and then stop, so the Germans are always about to arrive and never seem any closer. Zac Nicholson shoots Prague in brown and grey under snow and the 1980s in the flat overcast light of Sunday-night television, and neither look has a single image we could describe to you from memory. Lucia Zucchetti cuts between the eras on the scrapbook, old Winton touching a photograph, cut to the child, and you can see the join coming every time. Volker Bertelmann’s piano score keeps its head down for an hour and a half. We sat through the whole of the Prague story without once being afraid for anybody, and in a film about getting Jewish children out of a city the German army is about to enter, that is a strange thing to have to report.

Then the film arrives at the place it has been heading all along, and we will not describe it, or how Hawes stages it. We will say that we cried, and not politely, and that we were a little cross about it afterwards, because we could see every lever being pulled and it made no difference. Hopkins does almost nothing. The camera stays on him. It is the one place in the film where restraint is a choice rather than a habit.

British films about wartime decency have a long shelf, and this one sits in the respectable middle of it. It is more honest than most about its hero being a clerk, and it knows that the interesting question is not why he did it but why he never mentioned it. It asks that question in nearly every 1980s scene and does not quite answer it.

Watch it at home, where the television look stops being a fault, with someone older than you and a handkerchief between you. It runs 109 minutes and carries a 12A, and the certificate is right: there is nothing here a twelve-year-old could not watch.

*Fi1m score 64, published 9 September 2026.*

## What the critics say

Most critics agree on two things: Anthony Hopkins is the reason to watch, and the film around him is conventional. The praise clusters almost entirely on his understated older Winton, with several reviews also finding room for Johnny Flynn as the younger man, and on the recreation of the 1988 television reveal, which nearly everyone names as the moment the film earns its tears.

The reservations cluster just as tightly. The reviews call the structure by-the-numbers, the wartime scenes diagrammatic, and the whole thing closer to television than cinema; a few find it orchestrated to the point of manipulation. The spread is narrow, with most notices landing in the middle and only two going properly negative. Slant Magazine finds it a staid biopic that reduces the rescue to facts and figures, and The New York Times argues it is really two films that never quite join.

## Straight answers

**Is One Life worth watching?**

*One Life* is worth watching for anyone who wants a careful, conventional British film about wartime decency with a superb Anthony Hopkins at its centre, and we scored it 64. The 1938 scenes in Prague are ordinary and never frightening, but the last quarter of an hour made us cry despite ourselves. Best seen at home with someone older than you.

**How long is One Life, and what is it rated?**

*One Life* runs 1h 49m and is rated PG by the MPA in the US. It is a history and drama film.

**Where can I watch One Life in the US?**

*One Life* is streaming on Tubi, Pluto TV and Amazon Prime Video in the US, and it is also available to rent from Amazon Prime Video from $4.99. Availability is checked daily; the links above go straight to each service.

**How violent or frightening is One Life, and is it suitable for children?**

*One Life* carries a 12A in the UK and a PG in the US, and the certificate is right: there is nothing in it a twelve-year-old could not watch. It is about getting Jewish children out of Prague before the German army arrives, but the film shows refugee camps and paperwork rather than violence, and it never manages to be frightening. The final scenes are emotional rather than upsetting.

**How does One Life compare to Au Revoir les Enfants?**

*One Life* is the gentler and more conventional of the two, and [*Au Revoir les Enfants*](https://film.one/film/au-revoir-les-enfants) is the better film. Malle's story of schoolboys hiding a Jewish classmate has the fear that Hawes's film never finds, and it earns its force through two boys learning how to be friends. *One Life* suits a family evening and Hopkins admirers; Malle's film is for anyone prepared to be shaken.

**What should I watch after One Life?**

After *One Life*, try [*Au revoir les enfants*](https://film.one/film/au-revoir-les-enfants) (1987, Fi1m 90): Malle’s schoolboys hide a Jewish classmate; the fear this film never manages. Then [*The Zone of Interest*](https://film.one/film/the-zone-of-interest) (2023, Fi1m 91): The other side of the same history, filmed with a coldness that stays with you.

### Reviews we read (23)

- **Los Angeles Times**, Katie Walsh (80/100, inferred): The critic praises the film's modest and restrained treatment that reflects Winton's quiet personality. She singles out the long-term emotional effects of his efforts many years later as the source of its moving impact. [Read](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/movies/story/2024-03-15/one-life-review-anthony-hopkins-johnny-flynn-nicholas-winton)
- **Variety**, Alissa Simon (75/100, inferred): The critic calls it a stirring biopic and a testament to the power of good. She singles out the emotionally stirring re-creation of the 1988 'That's Life!' TV reveal as the film's most poignant element. [Read](https://variety.com/2023/film/reviews/one-life-review-anthony-hopkins-1235719982/)
- **The Hollywood Reporter**, Leslie Felperin (70/100, inferred): The critic praises Anthony Hopkins' understated performance as Nicholas Winton but finds the film conventional and diagrammatic. The TIFF festival review highlights the moving historical story but notes its by-the-numbers approach. [Read](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-reviews/one-life-review-anthony-hopkins-1235587474/)
- **RogerEbert.com**, Nell Minow (65/100, inferred): The critic finds the film heartwarming but less than extraordinary overall. She singles out the Hopkins scenes for their sharper focus on existential issues of purpose and meaning. [Read](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/one-life-film-review-2024)
- **IndieWire**, Sophie Monks Kaufman (60/100, inferred): Anthony Hopkins delivers a devastating performance in this prestige biopic, but the script is silly and the overall craft is a mixed bag. The humanitarian story is handled unevenly. [Read](https://www.indiewire.com/criticism/movies/one-life-review-anthony-hopkins-1234903672/)
- **Little White Lies**, Adam Woodward (3/3/4): The critic praises the film as uplifting fare boosted by solid performances, especially Anthony Hopkins as the older Winton, whose cathartic moment stands out; they note the conventional biopic structure but highlight moments of lightness and Hopkins' chemistry. [Read](https://lwlies.com/reviews/one-life)
- **Screen Daily** (60/100, inferred): The critic views it as an undeniably moving but overly orchestrated tearjerker that honors Winton yet relies on emotional manipulation; praises the layered Hopkins performance in the 1980s scenes. [Read](https://www.screendaily.com/reviews/one-life-toronto-review/5185461.article)
- **Time Out**, Ian Freer (3/5): The critic finds the film a conventional telling of a remarkable story, hampered by restraint but elevated by Anthony Hopkins' subtle performance as the older Winton. They single out Hopkins' portrayal for praise while noting it falls short of Schindler's List's power. [Read](https://www.timeout.com/movies/one-life-2023)
- **The New York Times**, Ben Kenigsberg (40/100, inferred): The critic notes that the film falls into a dramaturgical trap while trying to capture Winton's stoic modesty. He describes it as really two movies, with the wartime actions viewed from 1987. [Read](https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/14/movies/one-life-review-one-mans-rescue-of-children-in-wartime.html)
- **Slant Magazine**, Gregory Nussen (30/100, inferred): The film is a frustratingly staid biopic that reduces Winton's heroics to facts and figures, lacking depth in characterization and cinematic interest despite the moving climax. [Read](https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/one-life-review-anthony-hopkins/)
- **Empire**, Kelechi Ehenulo: A solid but conventional retelling of Nicholas Winton's story that doesn't fully reach emotional heights. Hopkins and Flynn deliver heartfelt, nuanced performances that make the film moving. [Read](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/one-life/)
- **Evening Standard**, Hamish MacBain: A beautiful tribute with a superb, warm and moving performance from Hopkins that will make viewers cry. The remarkable story of Winton's rescue efforts is powerfully conveyed, with added contemporary resonance. [Read](https://www.standard.co.uk/culture/film/one-life-sir-nicholas-winton-kindertransport-biopic-anthony-hopkins-b1113288.html)
- **Financial Times**, Danny Leigh (★★★★☆): The review notes that despite being flatly made and at times drab, the film still brings viewers to tears thanks to Hopkins's quiet compassion. They single out the lead performance as embodying the film's value in reminding what people are capable of. [Read](https://www.ft.com/content/0007cd5d-d6be-4cf8-90a7-20e66b681b20)
- **The Guardian**, Peter Bradshaw: The critic praises the film's heartfelt and direct telling of Nicholas Winton's story, noting it is moving and does justice to a remarkable true event. They single out the recreation of the emotional That's Life! TV moment for particular acclaim. [Read](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2023/dec/28/one-life-review-anthony-hopkins-in-extraordinary-true-story-of-british-schindler)
- **The i Paper**, Francesca Steele: An extraordinary true story with enormously moving moments despite a conventional script and made-for-TV feel. Flynn and Hopkins excel in sensitive, meticulous portrayals of Winton at different ages. [Read](https://inews.co.uk/culture/film/one-life-review-johnny-flynn-out-acts-anthony-hopkins-2821995)
- **The Telegraph**: The review highlights Anthony Hopkins's light-touch and affecting restraint as perfect for the role of the modest hero Nicholas Winton. It singles out the soberly stirring period piece and the deployment of the real-life TV revelation as the emotional climax. [Read](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/films/2023/10/12/one-life-review-anthony-hopkins/)
- **The Times**, Ed Potton (★★★★☆): The critic calls it a tear-jerking story that does justice to a remarkable and modest man. They single out the performances of Hopkins and Flynn along with the warm, unfussy direction and careful handling of the pain of belated recognition. [Read](https://www.thetimes.com/culture/film/article/one-life-review-nicholas-winton-anthony-hopkins-bchqbf27z)
- **Collider**, Isabella Soares (8/10): Led by an excellent Anthony Hopkins, One Life is a powerful adaptation that does right by its historical heroes. The film succeeds through its simplicity, strong casting including Johnny Flynn as young Winton, and attention to authentic details in production design. [Read](https://collider.com/one-life-review/)
- **HeyUGuys**, Daniel Goodwin (4/5): Praises the well-structured screenplay, intricate detail, stunning performances, taut pacing and heart; notes it's just shy of phenomenal but worthy of big screen. [Read](https://www.heyuguys.com/one-life-review/)
- **Paste**, Brogan Morris (6.5/10): Well-acted and competently told with a strong central performance from Anthony Hopkins as the older Winton, the film is accessible but appears flimsy compared to more rigorous recent Holocaust cinema. It centers the rescuer's emotional journey and ends on a triumphant note. [Read](https://www.pastemagazine.com/movies/anthony-hopkins/one-life-review)
- **The Playlist**, Gregory Ellwood (C+): Finds most of the film conservative and by-the-numbers, uninspired despite Hopkins, but the emotional turning point is strong; wishes the rest lived up to it. [Read](https://theplaylist.net/one-life-review-anthony-hopkins-gets-this-tearjerker-to-safe-shores-tiff-20230910/)
- **Deadline**, Pete Hammond: The critic calls it a moving and inspiring true story of quiet heroism that should not be missed. They single out Anthony Hopkins' performance as perfectly embodying the modest man and the film's admirable restraint under first-time director James Hawes. [Read](https://deadline.com/2024/03/one-life-review-anthony-hopkins-inspiring-story-man-who-saved-669-children-in-1938-1235858047/)
- **Film Stories**, Simon Brew: The critic praises the film's accessible, mainstream storytelling and the powerful emotional impact of the 1980s segments with Hopkins' performance, calling it a fine, warmly recommended film despite being conventional. [Read](https://filmstories.co.uk/reviews/one-life-review-nicholas-wintons-extraordinary-life-story-brought-to-the-screen/)

## Details

- **Director:** James Hawes
- **Director:** James Hawes
- **Screenplay:** Lucinda Coxon, Nick Drake
- **Cinematography:** Zac Nicholson
- **Editor:** Lucia Zucchetti
- **Music:** Hauschka
- **Production design:** Christina Moore
- **Costume design:** Joanna Eatwell
- **Producer:** Joanna Laurie, Iain Canning, Emile Sherman
- **Cast:** Anthony Hopkins as Nicholas Winton; Johnny Flynn as Young Nicholas Winton; Lena Olin as Grete Winton; Romola Garai as Doreen Warriner; Alex Sharp as Trevor Chadwick; Jonathan Pryce as Martin Blake; Helena Bonham Carter as Babi Winton; Juliana Moska as Hana Hejdukova
- **Runtime:** 1h 49m
- **Certificate (MPA):** PG
- **Release (the US):** 15 March 2024
- **Genres:** History, Drama
- **Box office:** $51 million
- **Trailer:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ethollg-PI

## Where to watch in the US

- Tubi: free, hd
- Pluto TV: free
- Amazon Prime Video: add-on
- Amazon Prime Video: rent $4.99, hd
- Amazon Prime Video: buy $9.99, hd

*Checked 2026-09-10.*

Also available in: AE, AR, AU, BE, BR, CA, CH, CL, CO, DK, EC, EE, ES, FI, FR, GB, IE, IN, IT, LT, MX, NL, NO, NZ, PA, PE, PL, SE, TR, US. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country.

## If you liked this

- *Into the Arms of Strangers: Stories of the Kindertransport* (2000): The children themselves, grown old, telling it without a script to help them
- *Au revoir les enfants* (1987), Fi1m 90: Malle’s schoolboys hide a Jewish classmate; the fear this film never manages — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/au-revoir-les-enfants.md)
- *The Zone of Interest* (2023), Fi1m 91: The other side of the same history, filmed with a coldness that stays with you — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/the-zone-of-interest.md)
- *Mr Holmes* (2015): Another old Englishman, another study, another thing he cannot quite remember
- *Nowhere in Africa* (2001): A German-Jewish family who got out, and what getting out cost them

---
© 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/one-life