Out to own today: Darkest Hour, Journey’s End, and The Mercy

​Out to own today:

​Darkest Hour

“Which self should I be today?” Winston Churchill (Gary Oldman)
 
Why do all this year's plethora of Winston Churchill projects have to introduce him through the eyes of a secretary? The repeated narrative device is not a fascinating gender reversal. Meaty roles they aren't, with added gender stereotype propensity for tears. Kate Phillips as Venetia Scott in THE CROWN [season one], Ella Purnell as Helen Garrett in CHURCHILL, and now Lily James as Elizabeth Layton here. It is bizarre that three different creative teams have opted for such. So often in cinema and television the newbie character is the audience way into a story. They learn as we learn. It has become a lazy choice. Dropping the viewer into the thick of it is a sign filmmakers take us seriously.
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​Journey’s End

“Every little noise up there makes me feel sick,” Stanhope (Sam Claflin)
 
JOURNEY’S END is charismatic and sporadically vivid, but says little new about the First World War. We see trench warfare from the hackneyed narrative device of the newbie. He learns as the audience does. But whom is this trying to educate? Surely anyone drawn to this film is already aware of the situation and stakes? Raleigh (Asa Butterfield) is wide-eyed. He is infused with the bravery of heroic imaginings, having not yet seen grim combat. JOURNEY’S END carries out the poster tagline for PLATOON (1986): “The first casualty of war is innocence.” And typifies the story’s mostly unsurprising themes.
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​The Mercy

“Take your dreams out to sea,” Rodney Hallworth (David Thewlis)
 
For all the creative talent behind and in front of the camera, THE MERCY has turned out to be a mediocre affair wasting psychological promise. What compels people to fabricate their skill set? The film starts to ask that question, but does not delve. I am not talking about a party where you feel out of your depth - for such social setting movies see POWDER ROOM and THE SQUID AND THE WHALE. Self-aggrandisement due to insecurity is comprehensible. THE MERCY is in a darker subgenre. Characters are jaw-droppingly out of their depth, lying to maintain a façade, and the repercussions are life-altering (e.g. SHATTERED GLASS and THE INFORMANT! the latter also by writer Scott Z. Burns).
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