One Life

Grade: D

The first 90 minutes of One Life are among the most soulless, mechanical, and bland I have ever seen in a historical drama (or any film, for that matter) – and the last 20 are powerful and poignant, as the weight of this amazing true story gets brought home. I was upset because I hated most of the movie, then when it got fairly decent, that somehow made me angrier. I was all ready to write it off, then it had to go and end well. Don’t you hate it when that happens?

The last 18% isn’t enough to save it, and I almost want to spoil it for you so you won’t have to sit through the awful 82%. I had never heard of the true story One Life is based on, but it’s an uplifting one. Stockbroker Nicholas Winton became a hero in 1938, when he coordinated the transport of over 600 Jewish refugees (mostly children) to safety. The movie jumps back and forth between 1938 and the 1980s, as the elderly Winton (Anthony Hopkins) reflects back on those days when going through old scrapbooks and the like. He’s happy to have saved who he did, but sick with guilt that he couldn’t have saved more. Hopkins is one of our most valuable living actors. At this point, I don’t think he can do any wrong, even if the film does plenty. One Life is so unrelentingly dull. Everything feels so empty and unearned, until the final scenes, where the meaning eventually pokes through.

Hopkins won his second Oscar three years ago for The Father – a role that deservedly put him back on the map for many. I haven’t been too impressed with the material he’s done since then (Armageddon Time, The Son, and Freud’s Last Session, anyone?) – but at 86 years old, I just appreciate that he’s still out there and working as prolifically as ever. Maybe one of his four upcoming projects will be more my speed. Other performances are fine, but don’t improve matters too much. The recognizable faces include Lena Olin, Helena Bonham Carter, and Jonathan Pryce – Hopkins’s fellow Pope from The Two Popes – shows up for one scene.

I get why the movie needed to show both time periods, but it might have been better served if it had gotten all or most of the 1938 stuff out of the way first, rather than disjointedly pinballing back and forth. The subject matter is heavy enough already, it didn’t need such a dreadfully somber score, with all those strings and piano arpeggios in minor chords. With its PG rating and informative educational value, I can imagine One Life being shown in schools. That idea makes me very glad I’m not a teacher, or a student anymore.

Grade: D