Une vie

Anthony Hopkins excels in the lead role, showing he's still magnetic well into his 80s and he's ably supported by Johnny Flynn playing him as a younger man and it's good to see Lena Olin again on the screen, playing his wife.

It's a solid drama that will appeal to the same target audience that made The Great Escaper,Operation Mincemeat,Dirty Little Letters etc popular; the older generation- and there's nothing wrong with, at least their going to the movies!

I knew about the Kindertransport but not fully; this film dutifully tells the story and it has the same level of tension that Munich: The Edge of War had ,countries being invaded as a set up to tell humane stories.

The classic TV recreation on' This Life' was well done and moving.

Turn on the news and what do you see? Man's inhumanity to man. Ukraine, Gaza etc etc. It's enough to make you lose faith in the human race - or it would be were it not for the occasional story of humanity at its best.

In Czechoslovakia in 1938-9, a small group of people (Nicholas Winton is the best known as he was the last survivor of that group) are appalled by the plight of mainly Jewish refugees, and resolve to do something. Despite opposition from governments (German, Dutch, British and American) they manage to evacuate 669 children and provide them with foster families in the UK, where many of their descendants live to this day. A further 250 children were on a train that was scheduled to leave on the day war was declared. Two of them were still alive at the war's end.

Then the story was forgotten for more than forty years, until at last Nicholas Winton was given the recognition he deserved (not the least astonishing part of the story is that Robert Maxwell did one decent thing in his life).

The film is in two parts; the younger Winton being played by Johnny Flynn, the older by Anthony Hopkins. Both give stand-out performances. Also excellent is Helena Bonham Carter as Winton's mother. The scene where she tells a bureaucrat what she thinks of him is priceless.

But the most important aspect of the film is its message. Human kindness is still a force in the world. Everyone can make a difference. No good deed, be it great or small, is ever wasted.

If only governments were run by people like Nicholas Winton.

The story of Nicholas Winton, who saved hundreds of children from the Nazis just before the start of WW2 by organising trains from Czechoslovakia to the UK, is very much a story worth telling, especially as he was essentially a modest hero, one who didn't even think he deserved recognition, which makes his story all the more moving as it unfolds in flashback from late 70s Britain as Winton, superbly portrayed by Anthony Hopkins, remembers the events of the late 1930s.

Of course, there have been so many WW2 dramas over the years, so I felt the pre-war scenes do somewhat lack tension and a certain freshness, but good direction and succinct writing do calmly and absorbingly set the scene, explaining those earlier events well, but we also follow the way that 40 years later the heroic efforts of Winton and his colleagues were finally revealed and celebrated, ultimately making it a truly moving and revealing film. Perhaps, considering how things look today, it's also a reminder of how good really can triumph over evil and cynicism, and it's finally a superb tribute to a remarkable man.

The true story of Sir Nicholas Winton, who was responsible for evacuating over 600 children from Czechoslovakia, which was on the verge of Nazi invasion.

This is a truly outstanding film, one of the best I've seen in a while, for my shame I had no idea if Nicholas Winton's story until this film, it promoted me to dig deeper, what a fascinating, brave man.

Beautifully produced, and not just the visuals, of course it looked amazing, but the tone and feel of the movie was perfect. At times I honestly felt like I was watching something by Stephen Poliakoff, someone who truly does know how to move the viewers.

BBC films, proof that The BBC still has the ability to deliver incredible quality, when it focuses on actual storytelling, this was like something made from yesteryear.

Sir Anthony Hopkins delivers yet another masterclass, his scenes at the That's Life studio were incredible, Hopkins was matched by an equally captivating performance from Johnny Flynn, fabulous.

Intensely moving, I saw many tears at the cinema, a very powerful story, a true act of selfless bravery.

Wonderful.

10/10.

"One Life" is a biographical drama film based on the non-fiction book "If It's Not Impossible... The Life of Sir Nicholas Winton" by Barbara Winton. Directed by James Hawes and starring Anthony Hopkins in the lead role, it is a simple human interest story that carries itself as humbly as its lead subject.

In 1938, British stockbroker Nicholas "Nicky" Winton (Anthony Hopkins) visits Czechoslovakia to assist with matters regarding the Jewish population. While there, Nicky works hard to rescue large numbers of children to be transported back to England before the Nazis can have them sent to concentration camps. Throughout the rest of his life, Nicky is encouraged by his family to make his deeds known to the public, but he instead chooses to keep them to himself. In 1988, Nicky's wife discovers a scrapbook in their attic detailing all of the children and their families he helped save, and subsequently sends it to the media. As a result of this, Nicky's heroism receives wider acknowledgment, but is he prepared for all the attention he could garner from this?

Thanks to the efforts of one man in particular, there are over 6,000 people in the world who are alive today because of his actions. That man in question is Nicholas Winton, a stockbroker who risked his life to rescue 669 children from becoming victims of the Holocaust, earning him the nickname "The British Schindler". However, it wasn't until half a century later that Nicholas's humanitarian work was made known to the public, when the media caught wind of his good deeds and reached out to the children and the relatives of those he saved. In the 2023 film "One Life", we are presented with a straightforward, respectful look at Nicholas's life in a way I am sure he would most likely approve.

The film is presented to us in a fairly conventional manner, which is fine as this can be seen as a reflection of Nicholas himself, who was a relatively humble man. When we are first introduced to Nicholas, he is an elderly man in the late 1980s sifting through papers he chooses to keep hidden away from his family. Immediately afterwards, the film flashes back to 1938 where we see a twenty-something Nicholas arriving in Czechoslovakia to undertake work among the local Jewish community. It is here that Nicholas meets some of the Jewish children, with whom he forms a friendly, albeit brief bond with when he shares his chocolate bar with a select few. From here, Nicholas becomes inspired to focus his efforts on helping these children, even if it comes at the risk of attracting attention from the advancing Nazi threat.

James Hawes's direction is effective at conveying Nicholas's emotional state whenever the film needs to showcase it. For instance, in one scene where we see Nicholas browsing through his scrapbook, all of the photographs and descriptions of the children are seen reflected in his glasses. The camera then zooms in on his face to show how much emotion he is filled with as he recollects all of the youths he saved and, rather tragically, the ones he could not. We see how conflicted Nicholas is in his reminiscing, as while it is true he managed to rescue so many children, he cannot escape the guilt of the ones who were far less fortunate. I was pleased to see that the film tackled this angle to Nicholas as a person as it would have been easy to only examine the positive aspects of his deeds while completely disregarding the negative. The fact of the matter is that Nicholas has always had to deal with this emotional burden, and making it public knowledge may not be what he needs to overcome his feelings of self-doubt.

As the lead character, Anthony Hopkins once again proves that he's one of the best actors currently working today as he perfectly depicts the elderly Nicholas throughout all of his emotional states. Most of the time, it isn't through Hopkins's line delivery or his reaction to things, but through his body language that helps his performance leave the most impression. Aside from the aforementioned scene with the scrapbook, I also really liked this one part where Nicholas is sitting quietly in a chair by his pool overcome with the emotion of reminiscing about what he did fifty years earlier. Here, he simply sits there staring off into the distance fighting back tears until his wife arrives to comfort him. In the hands of a lesser actor, this scene may have been forgettable but Hopkins shows his ability to act using his body rather than simply through words during this scene, which gives a moment like this considerably more impact than it should.

However, this is clearly a one man show, and while that does make sense in the long run, it seems like kind of a waste to include all these other notable actors and do very little with them. Helena Bonham Carter plays the young Nicholas's mother, who essentially taught him the selfless value of doing good deeds for the sake of others. Unfortunately, she is only in the film for about five minutes and these are exclusively during the flashback scenes. Similarly, Jonathan Pryce appears as the older version of one of the people whom Nicholas worked with to rescue the children. His screen time is even less than Carter's and didn't really add anything particularly important to the film. Regardless, I still appreciate that all of these actors each wanted to be part of a film that helps preserve the legacy of someone important like Nicholas Winton.

Although the film can hardly be considered groundbreaking from a creative viewpoint, "One Life" still has moments of poignancy that are well worth your time. The subject matter alone warrants at least one viewing, as it is rare to hear about such great deeds being enacted by an uncommonly humble individual. In a world full of fake charitable people who only do nice deeds to stroke their egos, it's refreshing to know that there are people out there like Nicholas Winton who choose to do the right thing out of the kindness of their hearts. The world definitely needs more people like that, and if you can't find someone like that, be someone like that.

I rate it 8/10.