The biographical drama film One Life, directed by James Hawes (Slow Horses, Black Mirror), originally premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival back in September 2023 and did not hit theatres in the United Kingdom until January 1, 2024. Finally, it will be released on March 15, 2024, across North America. The movie is based on the biographical book “If It’s Not Impossible…The Life of Sir Nicholas Winton” written by the late daughter of Sir Nicholas Winton, Barbara Winton.
The opening of One Life began with Anthony Hopkins‘ older depiction of British stockbroker Nicholas Winton in 1987. It showed how he lived with his wife—a quiet, quaint life in the suburbs. He contemplated cleaning out his office full of thousands of papers, later to be revealed it was his work on saving refugee children at the start of World War II. While his wife went away on a trip, he drifted through memories of the past—really fixated on a briefcase marked with letters “T.C.” on it.
The past storyline followed 29-year-old Nicholas as he visited Prague, Czechoslovakia, in 1938. During this time, many refugees from neighbouring countries escaping Nazi Germany’s rule were harboured in Prague. Nicholas witnessed the poor living conditions for refugees living here and immediately wanted to bolster support to get the children out of the city by train before Adolf Hitler’s forces closed the borders.
The lack of a great score was noticeable with almost generic, sombre, hopeful tones. I expected a more dynamic range of sounds from Academy-Award-winning Volker “Hauschka” Bertelmann because of his work on the music for Lion and All Quiet on the Western Front. But the silence spoke volumes as well, especially when there were new developments occurring in Prague that Nicholas learns from Great Britain throughout the film. I hope Hauschka brings some interesting sounds to upcoming films Road House and Monkey Man as well.
“One Life was another poignant war story that was not widely taught in the history books…”
While One Life was nothing special in terms of crazy CGI/VFX or stunning cinematography of scenic beaches or fog-covered mountains, it had some great, intimate camera work. The homely walkabouts of Hopkins’ Nicholas were silent but very tight, keeping the framing of conversations focused on his face from various angles. Even in later scenes, there were a lot of facial reactions from Hopkins where the camera did not need to show what he was looking at—a thoughtful approach by the cinematographer Zac Nicholson.
Helena Bonham Carter had a full sum of one badass moment in her role as Nicholas’ mother, Babette Winton. Otherwise, her character faded into the background, similar to Jonathan Pryce as Nicholas’ friend Martin Blake. The movie relied heavily on the star performances of Hopkins and Johnny Flynn, as well as the young and older Nicholas, which was the point of the film.
“While One Life was nothing special in terms of crazy CGI/VFX or stunning cinematography of scenic beaches or fog-covered mountains, it had some great intimate camera work.”
Sometimes, the supporting cast in biopics can overshadow the lead, but that was not the case here. In fact, much of the supporting cast faded into the background a lot. While the focus was on Nicholas Winton, I felt like there could have been a stronger supporting cast. Unfortunately, Oppenheimer set a really high bar for high-quality acting all-around in a dramatic biographical film.
One Life was another poignant war story that was not widely taught in the history books, at least not in mine. But these are the stories that remind us of harsher times. They also remind us of the current troubling times of war, refugees, and the impact war has on children, with so many wars happening around the world (in Ukraine, in Israel, and in Sudan—among many other civil wars). It is these small acts of heroism that restore the small bits of humanity in people.
This film successfully showed all of these aspects in a well-paced 110-minute tale of one person’s perseverance and determination to help others. To the film editor Lucia Zucchetti, I applaud her for keeping each story beat flowing well—nothing dragged or rushed. The ending culminated into something touching and hit on topics a little too close to home. One Life was nothing like the brutal depictions shown in Shindler’s List, but the messaging was just as powerful. Bring some tissues because it had a couple of endearing moments, and Hopkins continues to sell them well.
