One Life when real life compromises spectacle

One Life is a movie directed by James Hawes. The film is about Nicholas Winton, a man who saved over 600 children from nazi occupied Yugoslavia. The movie follows Winton as an old man played by Anthony Hopkins as he tries to get rid of all the artifacts he still possesses from his past. Nicholas still thinks a lot about the past, but the crux of his character is not all the lives he has saved, but all the lives he did not save. He sees the list with all the children he saved and his only point of focus is those who did not make it. All the papers he has in his house are taking up space and he needs to get rid of them as a way to let go of the past and on regret. Anthony Hopkins is wonderful in the role, but at this point that hardly needs mentioning since he is one of the greatest actors ever, however, credit must be given to where it is deserved and Hopkins is always nothing but fantastic. 

The film moves back and forth in time and we see a young Nicholas played by Johnny Flynn as he embarks on his journey of saving all these children. Flynn captures the idealistic and somewhat naive Nicholas to perfection. He gets help from his mother, played by Helena Bonham Carter who is also excellent. 

At some point, Nicholas is invited to participate in a TV show where he gets to meet some of the children he saved back then. The scene is of course incredibly moving and well done. When he returns home later he sits by himself and cries. Suddenly he sees the fruit of all his labor in front of him. A long list of names means nothing, fully grown people with families and lives are what matters, suddenly he sees what is most important. One might ask why Nicholas is doing all this for children whom he does not know and for a country to which he has no allegiance. He does it because it’s simply the right thing to do.

The story of Nicholas is an inspiring one for sure and one that I am happy to know of. It is amazing how movies can tell real and important stories that expand our understanding of history, but is it truly movies job to educate? The real-life story of Nicholas is good, and the acting in the film is good, but as a movie, I do not think it holds up that well. It sticks so much to the “real” events that the movie as a whole suffers. 

Nicholas helps the children with bureaucracy and paperwork. He is facing obstacles in the form of demands from the government and of course the German occupation of Yugoslavia. The German invasion is something in the background, a dark possibility that looms over the character’s heads. Suddenly Germany invades and there are soldiers everywhere. This is a more realistic way to explore the invasion since it would be from one day to the next. However, as a film it doesn’t quite work, we know of the Nazis so we know the threat, that much is certain. My problem is that it happens very fast and as soon as the Germans’ role in the movie starts to finish after that, we never return to young Nicholas again. His parts end very abruptly. This is properly more true to life, but it makes for a half-baked movie. 

The whole reveal with old Nicholas in the TV studio is nice the first time, but they do it again afterward with even more people. Again this is true to real life, but in terms of interesting cinema, it falls short. I can’t help but feel a little underwhelmed since I called that plot point way before they even did it. 

For this movie to excel you would need more excitement and some more natural conclusions to story arcs. Nicholas´ story is a great one, but it is ultimately one that I feel could have been a 1-hour documentary or a less ambitious film. There is not enough meat in the movie to justify it. It is not like the film is “bad” and as I have already explored there are plenty of things to like about the movie, especially the acting. It has the feeling of a “Oscar bait movie” that is to say a film that is light on story and substance whose only real purpose is to make the actors have great performances.

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