It may not be entirely the movie's fault. It's just so bloody disappointing and boring after Darkest Hour.
Weary from years of war -- and seemingly suffering no small amount of post-traumatic stress -- Churchill tries to explore the mind of Winston Churchill (played by Brian Cox) days before the invasion of Normandy during WWII. He does not think the plan will work and will serve only to massacre young men. Furthermore, he struggles in his marriage and with his secretary, and his peers increasingly run the war in ways that marginalize and trivialize him.
It's difficult to watch this quiet, understated, and terribly prosaic drama about a man who is so often lauded for being so interesting and dynamic, especially at one of the most exciting turns in the war. It's all the more difficult to watch when another -- far more artfully crafted and skillfully executed -- film remains fresh in the mind. More than once I wondered if this film wasn't simply filmed and produced as a television film from the '90s. That's certainly what it feels like. Bland, straightforward cinematography; warm, uninteresting color schemes and lighting; nothing popping out aurally or visually.
Tonally, the film lurches between a moving character study and a sweeping wartime melodrama. The two threads never connect, and we are ripped from the intimately theatrical scenes between Churchill and his wife (Miranda Richardson) and thrust into dense political and strategic meetings with heads of international state who are only fleetingly identified. Brian Cox himself is rather tiring to watch because I never really saw anyone but Brian Cox on the screen; I never saw Churchill. Which might be all the better, because what few Google searches I made on the little questions I had after viewing revealed a surprising amount of controversy over the screenplay. Apparently large elements of the film were thoroughly fictionalized.
As an exercise in historical fiction, however, the film is nevertheless incoherent and unbalanced. There doesn't seem to be any purpose, moreover, for the telling of this story. At least Darkest Hour's fictionalizations served aesthetic and thematic purpose. Here I constantly questioned why this movie exists, what the filmmakers were trying to say or demonstrate, and how it could possibly be important. I have yet to find any answers.
IMDb: Churchill
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