One Life (2024)
Director James
Hawes' moving new film One Life tells the story of Sir Nicholas Winton,
a British stock broker who helped hundreds of Jewish children escape Prague
when the Nazis were about to take over in the months leading up to World War
II.
Winton (played
by Anthony Hopkins as an old man and Johnny Flynn as a young one) is a
stockbroker who goes to Prague to volunteer for humanitarian aid. While there,
he notices the plight of the many Jewish refugees in the city, specifically the
children. Winton is initially told there is no way to get the children out of
Prague en masse, but he soon sets his mind to it, enlisting the aid of
his mother (Helena Bonham Carter) to drum up support back home.
To One Life's
great credit, the film manages to make bureaucratic struggles seem
compelling. While there is a sense of danger to what Winton is doing and the
children are facing, much of the PG-rated film's conflict stems from Winton's
dogged efforts to overcome mountains of paperwork and government officials who
are initially reluctant to be bothered.
The 86-year-old
Hopkins proves he still has formidable acting chops, and he is matched by Flynn
as his younger self. The finale of the movie is no secret to anyone who googles
Winton's story, but it is still likely to provoke tears in many audience
members.
There hasn't
been a strong marketing push surrounding One Life, but it's a movie that
is well worth seeing.
