A tour de force from Gary Oldman as he portrays Winston Churchill in his first few months of office at the start of WWII. Oddly enough though, aside from a few brief appearances from Kristin Scott-Thomas, the rest of the cast in this historical biopic are really quite unremarkable. The speeches are delivered magnificently; but there are too many speculative machinations going on - not least those involving King George VI - that do bring the credibility of this into question. There was plenty of accurately documented reportage from this time to enable Anthony McCarten to pen an entertaining script based more on the facts of this unsteady period of Churchill's premiership; Dunkirk; his relationship with Halifax & Roosevelt etc. rather than invent storylines. The attention to detail is superb and Oldman well deserved his second Oscar.

Gary Oldman was superb as Churchill.

I saw this film at TIFF on the big screen and loved it. There's not a weak member of the cast. I really loved the way the photography reflected the sense of gloom that would have been felt by the people facing a new war. Big thumbs up, gives a strong sense of the time and place.