As with all media properties on World War II topics, it is easy to get caught up in the military or "titles and places" of the sprawling conflict. Director James Hawes transcends that issue by plucking a true-to-life tale of human compassion-and then casting a legend to garner some eyeballs.
For a very basic overview, One Life tells the real-life story of Nicky Winton (Anthony Hopkins)-an older gentleman clearly struggling emotionally with aspects of his past as they pertain to the Nazi Holocaust. In flashbacks, it is revealed that a younger-man Nicky (Johnny Flynn) organized-basically from scratch-a transportation campaign to remove 650+ children from Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia to England.
There are some stories that simply beg to be unearthed, and I'm glad that writers Lucinda Coxon, Nick Drake, & Barbar Winton adapted this one to the big screen. Despite being a relatively simple tale of one man's efforts to combat Fascism with compassion, it is anything but simple in the spirit it projects. Constantly throughout the film, the message of "we all can/should do our part-and maybe strive for more" hits home not only in its WWII period times, but today as well.
Truth be told, I probably wouldn't have noticed this film without the casting of legendary Sir Anthony Hopkins, so that is a prescient casting choice in and of itself. But this is far from "stunt casting", as the 86-year old master thespian is (as always) more than capable of expressing every range of emotion needed in the older-Nicky performance that provides much of the film's air of mystery (just why is he so haunted-which we find out via the flashbacks).
It's actually a little hard to assign a star rating to a movie like One Life because it isn't a huge-scale production along the lines of, say, a Schindler's List. But in its own way-especially the emotional final 10-15 minutes-it cultivates similar emotions to such projects. I'll settle on a solid 8/10 stars-perhaps perfect in embodying the film's (and Nicky's) overall mantra: nothing flashy, just simple human decency in the face of adversity.
For a very basic overview, One Life tells the real-life story of Nicky Winton (Anthony Hopkins)-an older gentleman clearly struggling emotionally with aspects of his past as they pertain to the Nazi Holocaust. In flashbacks, it is revealed that a younger-man Nicky (Johnny Flynn) organized-basically from scratch-a transportation campaign to remove 650+ children from Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia to England.
There are some stories that simply beg to be unearthed, and I'm glad that writers Lucinda Coxon, Nick Drake, & Barbar Winton adapted this one to the big screen. Despite being a relatively simple tale of one man's efforts to combat Fascism with compassion, it is anything but simple in the spirit it projects. Constantly throughout the film, the message of "we all can/should do our part-and maybe strive for more" hits home not only in its WWII period times, but today as well.
Truth be told, I probably wouldn't have noticed this film without the casting of legendary Sir Anthony Hopkins, so that is a prescient casting choice in and of itself. But this is far from "stunt casting", as the 86-year old master thespian is (as always) more than capable of expressing every range of emotion needed in the older-Nicky performance that provides much of the film's air of mystery (just why is he so haunted-which we find out via the flashbacks).
It's actually a little hard to assign a star rating to a movie like One Life because it isn't a huge-scale production along the lines of, say, a Schindler's List. But in its own way-especially the emotional final 10-15 minutes-it cultivates similar emotions to such projects. I'll settle on a solid 8/10 stars-perhaps perfect in embodying the film's (and Nicky's) overall mantra: nothing flashy, just simple human decency in the face of adversity.