Before this edition of the BFI London Film Festival, I believed that there wasn’t much more space for movies about World War II, at least not for new narratives never seen, read, or documented before. It’s such a dark, unforgettable event in the history of humanity that hardly any filmmaker would be able to bring something truly impactful to the big screen that hadn’t already been done. In just a couple of days, we get The Zone of Interest, and One Life. If the former is driven by negative emotions, the latter is precisely the opposite.

Lucinda Coxon (The Danish Girl) and Nick Drake (Making Noise Quietly) team up to adapt the novel, If It’s Not Impossible… The Life of Sir Nicholas Winton, by Barbara Winton, daughter of the eponymous real-life protagonist. An important story about a selfless, responsible man who represents humanitarian purity and genuine altruism of the highest order, helping to rescue Jewish children before the war outbreak, saving hundreds of souls that today correlate to thousands of lives scattered across the world. James Hawes makes his directorial debut with an emotionally heavy film that deserves to be shared and recognized worldwide.

One Life Critique

Also Read: The Holdovers BFI London Film Festival Review

One Life follows the formulaic path of this type of biopics, including the predictable conclusion. That said, neither the interesting development of the main storyline nor the powerful culmination are affected, as proved by the quite fluid tears shed in the last minutes. There’s not much that Hawes could have done to transform this script into a unique audiovisual experience without taking unnecessary risks, and the truth is that the essential goal in these adaptations is to place all the spotlight on the actual content of the book, not on futile technical tricks or forced secondary dramatizations.

Following the same logic, the performances are equally grounded and as close to human realism as possible. Anthony Hopkins (The Father) and Johnny Flynn (Lovesick) portray the protagonist at different stages in his life, obviously. The former deals with the mess in his office and home, which, despite being spacious, isn’t enough to store so many crucial documents that saved hundreds of lives, as well as intense memories of a past that continue to prevent Nicholas Winton from moving on. Naturally, the younger actor deals with the real mess of war, where all these memories were forged, documents drawn up, and sacrifices made.

Both Hopkins and Flynn allow Coxon and Drake’s screenplay to shine. All the feelings reserved for the cathartic ending are due to the hopeful, devastating, humanistic, bittersweet script. Accompanied by exquisite editing from Lucia Zucchetti (Colette), and a powerful, immersive score from Volker Bertelmann (All Quiet on the Western Front), composed mainly of piano and strings – instruments that most easily provoke an ocean of tears in movie theaters – One Life leaves viewers’ hearts pounding hard throughout its runtime.

The cast carries the weight of the massive responsibility that falls on the shoulders of not only Nicholas Winton but everyone involved in the humanitarian operation. However, it’s up to Hopkins to deal with the impact of decades of unrecognized sacrifice and, above all, the feeling of guilt from not being able to save all the other children who failed to get on the trains from Czechoslovakia to London. And here, the iconic actor does what he does best, elevating One Life to an even more memorable, emotionally overwhelming level.

I actually prefer the title of the film to the book’s. One Life is simply brilliant, as it fits perfectly into the movie’s study of how a single life is capable of positively influencing an unquantifiable number of others. Personally, I love the typical white text on a black background between the end of the film and the respective credits, regardless of the story I just witnessed. It always brings significant additional information and, in the case of this film, it really adds impressive value to the phenomenal work of Winton & co.

The climax of One Life is the only moment in the entire movie that leaves me with a small issue, albeit in no way affecting the stirring layer that covers the last fifteen minutes. Without spoilers, the best way to describe this nitpick is that there’s a certain cinematic dilemma in recreating a televised scene. Regardless of whether the sequence of events is identical to how it actually played out or not, this is where the fact that it’s an “adaptation” should allow the filmmaker to make small adjustments to favor the themes he so carefully addressed during the film.

There’s a lengthening of this climax that I consider unnecessary and, in some way, purposefully organized to provoke an even bigger cathartic reaction from the audience. I repeat, it doesn’t harm One Life in retrospect and even helps to cache even more emotion. It’s just a not-so-right feeling that remains that, in addition to not changing the narrative itself, or the protagonist’s arc, they simply could have been more direct… but they just didn’t want to.

In Conclusion

One Life is yet another important story from WWII that deserves to be seen on the big screen. Despite not breaking genre barriers, it unfolds its narrative in a captivating manner, packed with devastating, bittersweet moments, but also filled with wonderful depictions of altruism, humanitarian sacrifice, and hope, culminating in a powerfully cathartic ending that serves as an ideal tribute to Sir Nicholas Winton. The cast carries the weight of the responsibility of the rescue mission with grounded care, relying on the legendary Anthony Hopkins to bear the explosion of the accumulated emotion. Beautifully edited, tear-inducing score… simply a must-watch.

8/10

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