Review: Dunkirk

As the title suggests, the film presents a recreation of the 1940 evacuation of Allied soldiers (400,000+) at the title Belgian port during WWII. Kenneth Branagh plays a British Naval Commander, Tom Hardy is an heroic Spitfire pilot, debutant Fionn Whitehead is a young infantryman and the audience surrogate, Mark Rylance is a civilian boat captain doing his part, and Cillian Murphy is a troubled Navy man whom Rylance rescues.

A lot of people think this 2017 WWII film from Christopher Nolan (“Memento”, “Insomnia”, “Inception”) is one of the best movies of the year. Personally, I think it only narrowly qualifies as a good movie. With its brief running time at around 100 minutes, this is a far too slight, snapshot of a film, that while everything in it is pretty much exceptionally done, there’s just barely enough movie at all. I was quite shocked at how limited it was, actually, I think calling it impressionistic or minimalist would be a tad too kind. I admired it, but nowhere near as much as I would’ve liked. I know WWII was such a big, expansive war that it’s difficult to cover much ground in a feature film (and films like “Midway” and “The Eagle Has Landed” have certainly tried and failed), but to then narrow the thing down to 100 or so minutes, I don’t think the writer-director has quite pulled it off the way he probably hoped. What Nolan has done here isn’t to provide a snapshot of a particular moment in the war, nor an expansive epic, but instead an awkward snippet of a snippet.

Sound design, cinematography, and costuming are all tops in this, even if some of the green-screen is a tad sloppy. There’s some interesting roles and performances from Mark Rylance and especially Cillian Murphy, whilst popstar Harry Styles doesn’t seem remotely out of place, he’s actually better than the film’s lead actor, Fionn Whitehead. Tom Hardy tries out another facial covering here, and steals his every scene. Wearing masks and trying to talk through them is kinda his thing, and he manages to get away with it, whereas others might be completely incoherent. In fact, the only cast member who doesn’t impress is Sir Kenneth Branagh, who is saddled with the most underwritten character in a film where character depth isn’t all that, well…deep.

I liked a lot of what I saw in this war film, but there simply isn’t enough of it to take the film to the next level where it holds a lasting impression. In fact, the most memorable thing in the film is the overly loud, annoying music score by Hans Zimmer (“Inception”). I actually think the film would sound brilliant without a music score at all. Well-made for what we get, but I found myself both engaged and disappointed throughout. Realistic filmmaking just gets this one over the line, despite script issues. 

Rating: B-