The line between a biopic and a documentary

I heard the story of Sir Nicholas Winton when it was contemporary, in the late 80s. News emerged that a man who had rescued dozens of Jewish children during World War II had been surprised by a British talk show when it turned out that the rest of the studio audience were, in fact, many of those children. It was a nice story and certainly one that went a long way toward looking at one of the "average" heroes of that time, such as Chiune Sugihara, a Japanese diplomat to Lithuania who also facilitated the flight of thousands of Polish Jews from the area, and Jan Swartendijk, who did the same as a functionary of the Dutch government-in-exile. The difference with Winton is that the latter volunteered to go to Czechoslovakia (he was then working as a stock broker) in order to assist the Committee for Refugees from Czechoslovakia in performing their mission of getting as many people out of the soon-to-be-conquered state as was possible before Nazi Germany took full control. The retelling of those events and how the 1980s version of Winton (played by Sir Anthony Hopkins; reportedly at the Winton family's request when they discovered that a film was being made about Nicholas) dealt with the aftereffects and the later discovery by the wider public of his actions is the bulk of the film called One Life.

The intent of the producers (Joanna Laurie, Guy Heeley, Iain Canning, and Emile Sherman; the latter two most notable for having produced The King's Speech) was probably to bring Winton's story to a much wider audience, now 35 years past the time it was first widely revealed. In that respect, there's not a lot of elbow room for presenting that story, since they'd want to stick to what is already known and which has a fair amount of tension and challenge in 1939 and internal struggle in 1988. The unfortunate side effect of that is if you already know the true story, a retelling of it isn't so much examining the person and his actions as much as giving a BBC retrospective on what already happened. That's not to say that the film is boring or trite or obvious or any of the generally negative labels one can apply to a middleweight, not-quite-Oscar-bait production. It's fine. But it's not really more than fine, other than the scenes of Winton meeting his now middle-aged and beyond children, who owe him their continued existence, which are as emotionally affecting as anything you might see on film. I was reminded of Liam Neeson's classic final scene in Schindler's List, where he bemoans how much more he could have done to save people from the Nazi horrors. These scenes are excellent and played without overdramatization by the performers. Just the moment of Nicholas looking into Vera Gissing's (Henrietta Garden) eyes and realizing that he was able to do that because he had tried so hard to make the impossible, possible. (The chorus of sniffling throughout the Michigan Theater was easy testament to how well that scene was played.) I also can't leave without a favorable comment for Helena Bonham-Carter, one of my all-time favorites, who plays Nicholas' mother, Babi, who helps him navigate the British bureaucracy.

But it's also not much more than what it says on the tin. I think Hopkins did quite well in a role that virtually demanded stock English restraint and in which he was haunted by the ghosts of all of the people that he wasn't able to save. It's also the first time I've seen Hopkins show as much emotion on screen as he did since Magic, where he was traumatized by his own ventriloquist's dummy. There are merits to the film, well beyond just keeping the threat of fascism and identity-driven policy fresh in everyone's mind while the Orange Idiot and his sycophants attempt to replicate the past. And I'm quite sure that Tricia, Jaime, and Larissa all enjoyed it more than I did because the story wasn't familiar to them and they could experience it with the sense of discovery, as well as emotional weight, that those producers, again, likely intended. However, it still feels as if it were lacking something that might have pushed it forward for me. As regular readers are aware, I'm all about a good documentary, so even if that's what this was, I'd say it's worthwhile. But I guess I was expecting something a bit more traumatic; something akin to Schindler's List and this film just didn't bring that weight with it. The fact that I've seen way too many movies and am, thus, highly jaded is almost certainly involved in my conclusions. Regardless, it's definitely worth seeing. But I wouldn't blame you if you waited to stream it at home.