Anthony Hopkins is sensational in James Hawes' otherwise fairly conventional biopic of Nicholas Winton, who was responsible for rescuing hundreds of Jewish children from Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia.
British readers of a certain age will no doubt fondly recall the topical light entertainment programme That’s Life!, which was a permanent fixture of the BBC1 schedule from the early 1970s to the mid ’90s. If you’re not old enough to remember, you may yet be familiar with a clip from one of the show’s most famous episodes, which occasionally does the rounds on social media – in it, a smartly dressed elderly gentleman receives the shock of a lifetime courtesy of host Esther Rantzen and the live studio audience, with whom he shares a special, hitherto undisclosed connection. This film is the story of that man and the extraordinary humanitarian deed that earned him a knighthood and led the press to dub him the “British Schindler”.
One Life opens in leafy Berkshire in the late ’80s, where Nicholas Winton (Anthony Hopkins), a first-generation émigré of German-Jewish descent, is living a peaceful life with his partner Grete (Lina Olin). One day, after some gentle persuasion from Grete, Nicholas decides to clear out his office; among the miscellaneous junk he’s accumulated over the years is a large leather-bound dossier detailing his selfless exploits in the lead up to World War Two.
In flashback, we meet a much younger Winton (played by Johnny Flynn) as he embarks on a daring mission to extricate hundreds of mostly Jewish children from a refugee camp in Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia. This turned out to be one of the most successful rescue efforts of what became known as the Kindertransport. Yet due to the covert nature of the operation, as well as Winton’s humility, his crucial role in it went unrecognised for half a century.
As is often the case with films that constantly alternate between separate timelines, you may find that your attention is held more strongly by one than the other. But director James Hawes does an admirable job of giving both narrative threads, and the performances contained within, plenty of room to breathe without losing sight of the bigger picture.
Flynn arguably has the easier task of raising the emotional stakes while the young Winton races against the clock to help as many children as possible to escape the Holocaust before it’s too late. But it’s Hopkins who delivers the stand-out moment in the film, expressing 50 years of pent-up frustration and regret over the kids Winton wasn’t able to save in a sudden cathartic release.
This is also a film that benefits from occasional glimmers of lightness, which contribute to a more rounded sense of who Winton was as a person while providing some respite from the weighty subject matter. Hopkins’ easy chemistry with Jonathan Pryce, for example, elevates a simple expository scene into a memorably amusing exchange. And there’s a very funny bit where Winton takes his story to a regional newspaper only to have it rejected on the grounds that it doesn’t have a strong enough local angle. Eventually, the producers of That’s Life! caught wind of it, and the rest is history. Spare a thought for the editor of the Maidenhead Advertiser, who must have been dreading this day.
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Published 31 Dec 2023
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