Darkest Hour
Focus Features | Release Date: November 22, 2017 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
75
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 50 Critic Reviews
Positive:
44
Mixed:
4
Negative:
2
Watch Now
Stream On
Buy on
Stream On
Stream On
Stream On
Expand

Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleDec 6, 2017
Across the veil of years, we have seen tall Churchills, obese Churchills, sloppy Churchills, gross Churchills and scowling bull dog Churchills, and yet not one movie or TV Churchill has come close to giving us the man in full, both in look and spirit, until Gary Oldman in Darkest Hour. Read full review
100
Washington PostAnn HornadayDec 5, 2017
Handsomely filmed, intelligently written, accented with just a dash of outright hokum, Darkest Hour ends a year already laden with terrific films about the same subject — including the winsome comedy-drama “Their Finest” and Christopher Nolan’s boldly visual interpretive history “Dunkirk” — and ties it up with a big, crowd-pleasing bow. Read full review
100
RogerEbert.comGodfrey CheshireNov 22, 2017
I’ve been trying to think when there was a historical drama I found as electrifying as Joe Wright’s Darkest Hour. It may have been Steven Spielberg’s “Munich,” which topped my 10-best list a dozen years ago. Read full review
91
The PlaylistGregory EllwoodSep 2, 2017
Few would argue that Oldman isn’t one of the finest actors of his generation, but this is a tour de force portrayal that will define his body of work for decades to come. Read full review
90
VarietyPeter DebrugeSep 2, 2017
Wright is both a virtuoso filmmaker and a natural showman, interpreting the screenplay as no other director could have possibly imagined it. Read full review
88
The Seattle TimesMoira MacdonaldDec 19, 2017
Darkest Hour is a handsome, old-fashioned film, filled with stirring music, dusty light and thoughtful performances — with one whopper of a star turn at its core. Read full review
88
Movie NationRoger MooreDec 19, 2017
Thanks to Oldman’s unerring portrayal of a deeply flawed man rising to face a crisis, and inspiring a nation to rise with him, it’s an equally worthy reminder that there have been bad times before today’s, and that people, great and small, saw them through. Read full review
88
St. Louis Post-DispatchCalvin WilsonDec 7, 2017
A gripping account of a pivotal moment in the early days of World War II, grounded by an Oscar-worthy performance by Oldman. Read full review
88
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperDec 7, 2017
The Darkest Hour is filled with authentic touches, large and small. Most authentic of all is Oldman’s performance. Read full review
88
Rolling StonePeter TraversNov 22, 2017
Gary Oldman is one of the greatest actors on the planet – and he proves it again as Winston Churchill in Darkest Hour. Read full review
83
Entertainment WeeklyChris NashawatyNov 22, 2017
I don’t think we’ll ever see anyone else do Churchill this well again unless the man himself comes back from the dead. Read full review
83
IndieWireDavid EhrlichSep 2, 2017
It’s a deliciously unsubtle testament to the power of words and their infinite capacity to inspire. Read full review
80
Total FilmPhilip KempJan 8, 2018
An Oscar-aimed turn from Gary Oldman anchors this WW2 portrait of Churchill at his most beleaguered. Read full review
80
New Orleans Times-PicayuneMike ScottDec 20, 2017
Stands as the best of this year's movies about Dunkirk. Read full review
80
Vanity FairRichard LawsonDec 9, 2017
Oldman does a wizardly bit of becoming, making all these changes in voice, bearing, and proportion without putting on too many actorly airs; for how complex it is, Oldman’s is a remarkably unfussy performance. Read full review
80
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzDec 7, 2017
You don’t lose yourself in the film the way you might like, but there is never a second in which Oldman is not riveting. Read full review
80
EmpireDan JolinDec 4, 2017
Churchill’s darkest hour is Gary Oldman’s finest. Gripping, touching, amusing and enlightening, his performance is the prime reason this film must be seen — but not the only one. Read full review
80
UproxxNoel MurrayDec 4, 2017
Darkest Hour dwells at a very particular point between “exaggerated for dramatic effect” and “how it really was.” The star embraces the challenge of that tricky balance, simultaneously playing a cartoon and a person. Read full review
80
The AtlanticDavid SimsNov 29, 2017
Wright has found an ideal collaborator in Oldman, an actor who knows how to embrace his most dramatic side but who still excels in his quieter moments. Read full review
80
ScreenCrushMatt SingerNov 23, 2017
As showy as that makeup and voice is, and as big and boisterous as Churchill’s speeches are, Oldman finds nuances that few actors do in this sort of role. He’s not all fiery tirades and tearful monologues. Read full review
80
IGNWilliam BibbianiNov 22, 2017
Gary Oldman gives an impeccable performance as Winston Churchill in a gorgeously photographed, suspenseful World War II film that suffers from too much hero worship. Read full review
80
New York Daily NewsJordan HoffmanNov 22, 2017
This is an extremely watchable and enjoyable film, but its compression of historical events does become a tad silly. Read full review
80
Los Angeles TimesKenneth TuranNov 21, 2017
From its grab-for-all-the-gusto Gary Oldman performance to its direction by Joe Wright, Darkest Hour is nothing if not an energetic, showy piece of work, but some types of showy have more staying power than others. Read full review
80
Time OutJoshua RothkopfNov 20, 2017
The year’s most shocking transformation arrives in the form of Gary Oldman’s Winston Churchill, a creation for the ages. Read full review
80
The GuardianPeter BradshawSep 14, 2017
Gary Oldman is terrific as Churchill, conveying the babyishness of his oddly unlined face in repose, the slyness and manipulative good humour, and a weird deadness when he is overtaken with depression. Read full review
80
Screen DailyWendy IdeSep 12, 2017
This is a film which breathes life, as well as alcohol fumes, into history. Like its central character, Darkest Hour has “mobilised the English language and sent it into battle.” Read full review
78
Austin ChronicleDanielle WhiteNov 23, 2017
I tried to imagine what it would be like watching this movie if I were unfamiliar with the source material. The story may be a bit strange, but certainly no less touching. That’s the thing about classics: Each reiteration, if done properly, puts us closer to the story at heart. Read full review
77
Paste MagazineDom SinacolaDec 21, 2017
It’s a beautiful thing, Wright’s film, an act of historical tension made with the grandest of ambitions tempered by the most careful of portrayals—precise in its bloat and fearless in its fantasy—a reminder today of what makes for actual leadership in a world exhausted by flummoxed white men with sound and fury, signifying nothing. Read full review
75
New York PostSara StewartDec 22, 2017
It’s an exhilarating contrast to the weak-sauce caped crusaders who arrived at the box office last week. For a more convincing (if selectively edited) portrait in heroism, look no further than Darkest Hour. Read full review
75
Philadelphia Daily NewsGary ThompsonDec 14, 2017
Churchill, by way of Darkest Hour, hands the actor some of the best speeches of his career, and Oldman brings them vividly to life. Read full review
75
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsDec 7, 2017
Darkest Hour pulls from both extremes of Oldman’s prodigious but often unexploited skill set, the subtlety as well as the flamboyance. Read full review
75
Boston GlobeTy BurrNov 23, 2017
A decent biopic, rousing and well-made and unruffled by depth, with an expertly judged performance at its center. Read full review
75
ConsequenceClint WorthingtonNov 21, 2017
Darkest Hour spends so much time as an actor’s showcase for Oldman that it oftentimes forgets to remind the audience of the ongoing war around him. However, despite the film’s occasionally languid pace, Wright imbues enough urgency through Oldman to maintain an undercurrent of tension throughout the film’s two-hour runtime. Read full review
75
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliNov 20, 2017
Gary Oldman’s portrayal of Churchill is among the best to reach the screen. With the help of makeup, Oldman immerses himself so deeply in the role that the actor disappears. Read full review
70
New York Magazine (Vulture)Emily YoshidaDec 10, 2017
Everyone seems to be a walking embodiment of an essence, not cartoons exactly, but something more totemic. If all this makes Darkest Hour propaganda, then the shoe may fit, though it’s hard to find fault with its protagonist’s aims, at least in this small of a scope. Read full review
70
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternNov 24, 2017
He’s (Oldman) superb in this one, a study in eccentric but magnetic leadership, and in masterly acting. Read full review
70
SlateSam AdamsNov 22, 2017
An engaging but safe journey towards a predetermined destination that engages the mind but not the heart. The movie doesn’t quite extract blood, sweat, or tears, even if it does toil. Read full review
70
Village VoiceAlan ScherstuhlNov 21, 2017
Wright’s film is fleet but not especially thoughtful, wholly convincing in its production design, and in one crucial sense something rare: Here’s a war movie about rhetoric rather than battle scenes. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterTodd McCarthySep 2, 2017
McCarten’s scene writing is tart and efficient and Wright infuses the drama with unquestioned energy. But this is a film in which every point and meaning is hit directly on the nose. Read full review
67
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerDec 22, 2017
This is pretty standard-issue Great Man of History psychobabble, and it’s insufficient, though somewhat satisfyingly so. The clichés go down easy. Read full review
67
The A.V. ClubIgnatiy VishnevetskySep 15, 2017
There aren’t thrilling dramatic insights to be found here, but Wright’s showboating is unflaggingly watchable. Read full review
65
TheWrapRobert AbeleNov 21, 2017
Oldman treats Churchill’s words the way a Broadway virtuoso would: as the showstopper. And who can blame him? It works. Read full review
63
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Kate TaylorDec 7, 2017
Wright's Darkest Hour is filled with many lush examples of the pathetic fallacy, which doesn't totally disguise the awkward truth that this is a film mainly about meetings. Read full review
63
ObserverRex ReedNov 28, 2017
Even though it does so through a dull and talky haze of cigar smoke, it is always Gary Oldman’s phenomenal performance that keeps the film airborne. Read full review
60
VoxAlissa WilkinsonNov 23, 2017
Oldman is excellent in the movie, playing a jolly, idiosyncratic, sometimes conflicted version of the British prime minister. But the movie Oldman is in isn’t as good as his performance. Darkest Hour is certainly engaging during its run time, but it’s weirdly forgettable after the fact. Read full review
60
The New York TimesA.O. ScottNov 21, 2017
Churchill’s resolve, like the bravery of the soldiers, airmen and ordinary Britons in “Dunkirk,” is offered not as a rebuke to the current generation, but rather as a sop, an easy and complacent fantasy of Imperial gumption and national unity. Read full review
58
Tampa Bay TimesSteve PersallDec 21, 2017
Gary Oldman may finally get that Oscar he has long deserved for Darkest Hour, a movie that seems constructed to do little else. Read full review
50
Austin ChronicleSteve DavisDec 13, 2017
A nagging question persists throughout Darkest Hour: Is Oldman’s compulsively meticulous turn here anything more than a brilliant impersonation? The answer is yes, but it’s a performance that always stands apart from the rest of the film. Read full review
38
Slant MagazineJake ColeOct 1, 2017
The film reinforces only the most simplistic and patriotic vision of Churchill, its closed-off view of the man reminiscent of the many tracking shots that wind through the underground tunnels of the U.K.‘s war command, constantly peeking into rooms with classified meetings as doors are abruptly closed to keep them secret Read full review
33
The Film StageEthan VestbySep 12, 2017
Darkest Hour is pure, uncut Oscar bait that goes through every bullcrap great man biopic platitude imaginable in its two-hour runtime. The reason to rush to such a harsh judgement is perhaps because it’s so damn hard to understand the actual reason for making this film in the first place other than racking up gold statues. Read full review
More From This Movie

75 Critic Reviews

7.3 User Reviews

Details & Credits|Trailers

Current Movie Releases
By MetascoreBy User Score
1 81 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple
2 77 Project Hail Mary
3 75 Send Help
4 73 Hoppers
5 72 The Sheep Detectives
SEE ALL
Essential Links
New on Amazon Prime Video
New on Netflix
Coming Soon to DVD/Blu-ray
SEE ALL