OPENING NIGHT (October 5)
TRIBUTE TO KRISTIN SCOTT THOMAS (October 6)
Director Joe Wright’s (Pride and Prejudice, MVFF 2005) Darkest Hour is absolutely gripping. Gary Oldman’s brilliant performance drives this story of Winston Churchill’s rise to power both as Prime Minister and as architect of the push against what seemed like the imminent, inevitable Nazi invasion of Britain—not to mention their utter domination of Europe—in World War II. Bullishly immune to his unpopularity amongst his fellow politicians, Churchill is aided and abetted by assistant Elizabeth (Lily James, Downton Abbey), and by his wife: Kristin Scott Thomas, impeccably arch as Clementine Churchill, her charm and insightfulness making her the ultimate ally of the man who had the full weight of the world on his shoulders. In this pivotal situation, this audacious, controversial, and visionary leader must navigate the backstage wheeling and dealing, the political maneuvering, and power plays in a seemingly untenable, unwinnable moment in history. As he does: Oldman’s Churchill is forceful, antagonistic, humorous, bombastic, eloquent—and unstoppable