As he approaches 80e birthday, Nicholas Winton doesn’t have the heart to celebrate. Invited by his partner, rightly exasperated, to put order in the bric-a-brac of paper objects that clutter the house, here is the old man plunged back into a glorious, but painful, past. This is because, fifty years earlier, passing through Prague on the eve of the Nazi invasion, “Nicky” set up an operation which saved 669 refugee children, the majority Jewish, from deportation. Alternating between the heroic yesterday and the melancholic present, One Life (A life) tells the true story of the man many have nicknamed the “English Schindler”. Anthony Hopkins played him in 1987-1988, and Johnny Flynn, in 1938-1939.
A veteran of television where he directed various episodes of series, often opulent and set in a historical context, such as Merlin, Penny Dreadfulor The Alienist, James Hawes takes his first steps in cinema here. Prudent, he sticks to a staging of proven classicism. The fact remains that his background serves him well.
In fact, the effectiveness of this two-part, two-speed biographical drama is largely attributable to editor Lucia Zucchetti (Ratcatcher, Morvern Callar), who knows how to make the transitions from one era to another harmonious and organic.
Thus the section set at the end of the 1980s turns out to be slower, more meditative, in tune with the state of mind of an elderly protagonist haunted by a feeling of guilt. It’s because Nicholas Winton would have wanted to save all the children…
Conversely, at the end of the 1930s, the pace is more hectic, with this element of racing against time, and all these young lives in the balance.
So tireless and pugnacious, Nicky will receive a lot of help in his extraordinary efforts. Two women, in particular, will make a huge difference: Doreen Warriner, from the Committee for Refugees from Czechoslovakia (Romola Garai, very apt in an under-written role), and above all, from England where she stands up to the bureaucrats, Babette Winton, Nicky’s mother.
Of German Jewish origin herself, Babette has since converted to the Church of England, and she immediately takes up the cause of her son’s mission. In this sweet score, the always wonderful Helena Bonham Carter inherits good lines to which she does justice.
Huge Anthony Hopkins
This narrative portion taking place just before the outbreak of the Second World War is the most successful, on the one hand thanks to the tension inherent in the action, but also thanks to the interrelationships between a gallery of interesting characters.
By comparison, what happens half a century later seems, well, limited and redundant.
Fortunately, there is the immense Anthony Hopkins, from whom we cannot take our eyes off for a moment. Here, the star of The Father (The father), Howards End (Return to Howards End) And The Silence of the Lambs (Thesilenceofthelambs), is very restrained. Which makes his rare outbursts of emotion all the more poignant.