Release Date – 1st January 2024, Cert – 12, Run-time – 1 hour 49 minutes, Director – James Hawes
Looking back on his life, Nicholas Winton (Anthony Hopkins) tries to find a home for his personal documents recounting his efforts in World War II to save child refugees in Prague.
The clip of Nicholas Winton’s second appearance on British consumer affairs series That’s Life goes viral every few months. It consistently manages to stir the emotions in those watching as the full scale of his work decades before is revealed to him. Therefore, it should come as no surprise that such a monumental feat of humanity has made its way to the big screen.
Clearing out his home office whilst his wife (Lena Olin) is away, Winton (Anthony Hopkins) looks back on his efforts to save refugee children in Prague just as World War II breaks out. Johnny Flynn effectively plays the young Winton in a number of flashback sequences which construct the bulk of One Life’s run-time. Such points could so easily feel like another standard British wartime drama, but there’s something about the spirit of the film as a whole which carries it through, alongside the central performances.
“Lots of these children grew up thinking that the worst thing that was ever going to happen to them was piano practice” is the statement given early in the film, as Jewish families face the threat of Nazi occupation. While, of course, there’s plenty within pitching Winton in great deals of heroic light, mixed in with sentimental tones, there are a good deal of sequences which avoid heavy-handedness and that aforementioned typical British war drama feel.
As the older Nicholas compiles various letters, files and documents in the hope of finding a good new home for the book telling of the work he and his fellow volunteers put in to saving the lives of hundreds of children I found a genuine faith in humanity building up in me. Building up to the key emotional core and recreations, especially when sticking the landing with the eventual That’s Life scenes. Such feelings lift the film up as a whole, stir the emotions within the viewer and simply help to push the film beyond something limited by familiarity.
Hopkins and Flynn work together, although never sharing the screen, to bring about the personal emotions of Winton and co’s work. The rush to make sure that children escape to safety as the Nazis clamp down on Czechoslovakia. The pair both give strong performances leading the film with great effect, with James Hawes’ direction helping to rein in the potential for forced hoped-for-impacts along the way. Perhaps the biggest proof that the film works is in the fact that the viral clip which is recreated manages to still have an effect; an element of surprise, particularly thanks to the fact that the moment is simply allowed to exist as it is, albeit with one or two slight cinematic flourishes to shine a light on Winton and his greatly admirable humanitarian efforts and achievements.
Generally avoiding heavy-handedness, forced sentimentality and an over-familiar feeling One Life manages to stir the emotions thanks to being reined in by director James Hawes, alongside Johnny Flynn and Anthony Hopkins’ effective leading performances.
Just A Little Bit Random 