Film: Dunkirk

GENRE: War, Drama

RATING: PG-13 for some language and intense war stuff
RUNTIME: 1 hour and 46 minutes

STARRING: Fionn Whitehead & Harry Styles (newcomers)

Mark Rylance (Bridge of Spies), Tom Hardy (Inception, The Revenant)

DIRECTOR: Christopher Nolan (Dark Knight Trilogy, Interstellar)

WRITER: Christopher Nolan (Inception, Memento, The Prestige)

PLOT: Trapped British soldiers need to be evacuated so England sends a bunch of regular boats.  

FULL DISCLOSURE: Didn’t know story but love Christopher Nolan.

STORY STUFF: Wow. I am surprised I never heard about this event in WWII before. It’s simply fascinating, intense and inspirational. Nolan does a deft job of showing three different timeframes at the same time and keeping you on the edge of your seat the whole time. Not a single second is wasted in this story. Every moment counts. It’s amazing.

ACTING STUFF: Nolan peppers his cast with a couple of his favourites like Hardy and Cillian Murphy (Batman Begins), some fresh-faced newbies and a few acting heavyweights like Kenneth Branagh (Hamlet) and Rylance. It is important to mention that there is hardly any dialogue in this film. The drama comes from the looks on these faces. They will pull you in with their shows of fear, concern, morality and bravery. One of my favourites was Rylance as a father doing what needs to be done to save young soldiers. He has such an earnestness to him. It’s riveting.

ARTISTIC STUFF: There is a lot I could write about but there are two elements that wowed me. The first is the cinematography. Hoyte Van Hoytema (Interstellar, Spectre) not only dazzles with some breath-taking aerial shots but also keeps us focused on the POV of our main characters. If they don’t know what’s going on outside the boat, neither do we. Creating that suspense kept me glued to the screen. The other element helping the suspense is the ticking time-bomb of Hans Zimmer’s (Inception, The Dark Knight) score. The actual ticking reminds you of the time constraints these soldiers are dealing with. It’s spellbinding.  

VERDICT: Five stars out of five

SEE IT IF: You have eyes and ears.

UPCOMING REVIEWS: Atomic Blonde