One Life (2023)

• Year: 2023
• Released: 01 Jan 2024
• Country: United Kingdom
• Adwords: 1 win
• IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt13097932/
• Rotten Tomatoes: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/one_life
• Metacritics:
• Available in: 720p, 1080p, 1080p
• Language: English
• MPA Rating: PG
• Genre: Biography, Drama, History
• Runtime: 110 min
• Writer: Lucinda Coxon, Nick Drake
• Director: James Hawes
• Cast: Anthony Hopkins, Helena Bonham Carter, Johnny Flynn
• Keywords: nazi, world war ii, czechoslovakia, based on true story, nazi invasion, jewish family,

	7.6/10
	90% – Critics
	94% – Audience

One Life Storyline

The true story of Sir Nicholas ‘Nicky’ Winton, a young London broker who, in the months leading up to World War II, rescued 669 predominantly Jewish children from the Nazis. Nicky visited Prague in December 1938 and found families who had fled the rise of the Nazis in Germany and Austria, living in desperate conditions with little or no shelter and food, and under threat of Nazi invasion. He immediately realized it was a race against time. How many children could he and the team rescue before the borders closed? Fifty years later, it’s 1988 and Nicky lives haunted by the fate of the children he wasn’t able to bring to safety in England; always blaming himself for not doing more. It’s not until a live BBC television show, ‘That’s Life’, surprises him by introducing him to some surviving children – now adults – that he finally begins to come to terms with the guilt and grief he had carried for five decades.

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One Life Movie Reviews

Heartbreaking & Heartwarming

I rarely concern myself with the opinions of others, especially professional critics, but some of the negative reviews I’ve read about this are churlish to say the least. I think one of the big positives of this film is that it just tells the story. Most of us in UK probably know the story of Sir Nicholas Winton and how he organised the transport of 669 Czech Jewish children to relative safety in the UK in the face of the Nazi onslaught in the Sudetenland and Czechoslovakia. Despite what some suggest, it clearly shows that this is a team effort led by Winton’s persistence and determination; it does not make him out to be the sole hero. However, as important as the evacuations is the story about how it came into the British consciousness via the quirky 1970s BBC TV show, ‘That’s Life.’ It truly is something that needed to be told, then and now, and is done so in a suitably serious nut heartwarming manner. Do go and see it and do be prepared for the final scenes.

A simple human interest story that carries itself as humbly as its lead subject

“One Life” is a biographical drama film based on the non-fiction book “If It’s Not Impossible… The Life of Sir Nicholas Winton” by Barbara Winton. Directed by James Hawes and starring Anthony Hopkins in the lead role, it is a simple human interest story that carries itself as humbly as its lead subject.

In 1938, British stockbroker Nicholas “Nicky” Winton (Anthony Hopkins) visits Czechoslovakia to assist with matters regarding the Jewish population. While there, Nicky works hard to rescue large numbers of children to be transported back to England before the Nazis can have them sent to concentration camps. Throughout the rest of his life, Nicky is encouraged by his family to make his deeds known to the public, but he instead chooses to keep them to himself. In 1988, Nicky’s wife discovers a scrapbook in their attic detailing all of the children and their families he helped save, and subsequently sends it to the media. As a result of this, Nicky’s heroism receives wider acknowledgment, but is he prepared for all the attention he could garner from this?

Thanks to the efforts of one man in particular, there are over 6,000 people in the world who are alive today because of his actions. That man in question is Nicholas Winton, a stockbroker who risked his life to rescue 669 children from becoming victims of the Holocaust, earning him the nickname “The British Schindler”. However, it wasn’t until half a century later that Nicholas’s humanitarian work was made known to the public, when the media caught wind of his good deeds and reached out to the children and the relatives of those he saved. In the 2023 film “One Life”, we are presented with a straightforward, respectful look at Nicholas’s life in a way I am sure he would most likely approve.

The film is presented to us in a fairly conventional manner, which is fine as this can be seen as a reflection of Nicholas himself, who was a relatively humble man. When we are first introduced to Nicholas, he is an elderly man in the late 1980s sifting through papers he chooses to keep hidden away from his family. Immediately afterwards, the film flashes back to 1938 where we see a twenty-something Nicholas arriving in Czechoslovakia to undertake work among the local Jewish community. It is here that Nicholas meets some of the Jewish children, with whom he forms a friendly, albeit brief bond with when he shares his chocolate bar with a select few. From here, Nicholas becomes inspired to focus his efforts on helping these children, even if it comes at the risk of attracting attention from the advancing Nazi threat.

James Hawes’s direction is effective at conveying Nicholas’s emotional state whenever the film needs to showcase it. For instance, in one scene where we see Nicholas browsing through his scrapbook, all of the photographs and descriptions of the children are seen reflected in his glasses. The camera then zooms in on his face to show how much emotion he is filled with as he recollects all of the youths he saved and, rather tragically, the ones he could not. We see how conflicted Nicholas is in his reminiscing, as while it is true he managed to rescue so many children, he cannot escape the guilt of the ones who were far less fortunate. I was pleased to see that the film tackled this angle to Nicholas as a person as it would have been easy to only examine the positive aspects of his deeds while completely disregarding the negative. The fact of the matter is that Nicholas has always had to deal with this emotional burden, and making it public knowledge may not be what he needs to overcome his feelings of self-doubt.

As the lead character, Anthony Hopkins once again proves that he’s one of the best actors currently working today as he perfectly depicts the elderly Nicholas throughout all of his emotional states. Most of the time, it isn’t through Hopkins’s line delivery or his reaction to things, but through his body language that helps his performance leave the most impression. Aside from the aforementioned scene with the scrapbook, I also really liked this one part where Nicholas is sitting quietly in a chair by his pool overcome with the emotion of reminiscing about what he did fifty years earlier. Here, he simply sits there staring off into the distance fighting back tears until his wife arrives to comfort him. In the hands of a lesser actor, this scene may have been forgettable but Hopkins shows his ability to act using his body rather than simply through words during this scene, which gives a moment like this considerably more impact than it should.

However, this is clearly a one man show, and while that does make sense in the long run, it seems like kind of a waste to include all these other notable actors and do very little with them. Helena Bonham Carter plays the young Nicholas’s mother, who essentially taught him the selfless value of doing good deeds for the sake of others. Unfortunately, she is only in the film for about five minutes and these are exclusively during the flashback scenes. Similarly, Jonathan Pryce appears as the older version of one of the people whom Nicholas worked with to rescue the children. His screen time is even less than Carter’s and didn’t really add anything particularly important to the film. Regardless, I still appreciate that all of these actors each wanted to be part of a film that helps preserve the legacy of someone important like Nicholas Winton.

Although the film can hardly be considered groundbreaking from a creative viewpoint, “One Life” still has moments of poignancy that are well worth your time. The subject matter alone warrants at least one viewing, as it is rare to hear about such great deeds being enacted by an uncommonly humble individual. In a world full of fake charitable people who only do nice deeds to stroke their egos, it’s refreshing to know that there are people out there like Nicholas Winton who choose to do the right thing out of the kindness of their hearts. The world definitely needs more people like that, and if you can’t find someone like that, be someone like that.

I rate it 8/10.

Solid performance by Anthony Hopkins, but the other leading actor didnt impress me (at all)….

Beware: this is not a 100% Anthony Hopkins movie, because this portrait is split into 2 parts, with another young (unknown) leading actor portraying the young version of Anthony Hopkins and there lies the problem…

The bad: Anthony Hopkins delivered another stellar performance! The mand oozes charisma. Such a joy to watch him perform.

BUT…..but his younger character, played by some actor completely unknown to me got as much screen time and he simply is completely lacking in charisma and that actually matters a lot, because there is definitely a lack of true actor’s chemistry because of this young actor’s shortcomings in performing.

More bad: this movie fails to really achieve any sort of riveting true drama. The opposite is true! It is more of a gentle slowburning portrait (with only a few dramatic-ish scenes) than it is a riveting world war 2 drama.

There simply is NO real drama in this movie. NOT what I expected at all! It sure as heck aint no Schindler’s List, directed brilliantly by Steven Spielberg in 1993 with a similar plot, which had TONS of suspense and drama and had me all teary eyed at the end!

I am quite disappointed. I blame the writer. This is not much more than a shallow surrogate of Schindler’s List. Probably best suited for a patience, senior audience, who dont mind lots of uneventful talking scenes without ANY drama.