One Life
Bleecker Street | Release Date: March 15, 2024 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
69
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 30 Critic Reviews
Positive:
20
Mixed:
10
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleMar 13, 2024
This is what Hopkins has been showing us for decade after decade: the deepest, rawest and most tortured feelings of private, dignified men. His is nothing less than a glorious cinematic legacy, and the miracle is that he keeps building on it. Read full review
91
ColliderIsabella SoaresSep 20, 2023
The film has the power to bring its audience to tears because the story is powerful, and the thoughtful creative decisions do justice to it. Read full review
88
ObserverRex ReedMar 15, 2024
In another in a long line of memorable, effective and inspired performances that resonate with truth, Anthony Hopkins is a magnificent centerpiece. Read full review
88
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperMar 13, 2024
This is every inch the prestige Brit biopic, from the use of certain visuals as transitions to the lush and rousing music by Oscar-winning composer Volker Bertelmann aka Hauschka (“All Quiet on the Western Front”) to the sometimes heavy-handed messaging in the dialogue, but the story of the man who came to be known as “The British Oskar Schindler” is deserving of the reverent biography treatment, and who better than Anthony Hopkins to tell us that story? Read full review
83
Original-CinLiz BraunMar 13, 2024
One Life is slow, old-fashioned storytelling. Both Hopkins and Flynn work to keep things tethered; children in peril are subject material that leans easily into the maudlin, but that’s avoided here, mostly courtesy of these performances. Read full review
80
The Irish TimesDonald ClarkeJan 2, 2024
One Life breaks no new cinematic ground. But it tells a story worth hearing. And it allows an indisputable great one more chance to show us what he can do. Read full review
80
The GuardianPeter BradshawDec 29, 2023
It was a goofy, almost silly caper which could have gone wrong or turned out to be misjudged; instead it was a moment of secular grace, like something from a late Shakespeare play. The film does justice to this overwhelmingly moving event in British public life in a quietly affecting drama. Read full review
80
The TelegraphRobbie CollinOct 13, 2023
In a pivotal scene, the younger Nicholas explains to his colleagues that he has faith in ordinary people because, well, an ordinary person is all that he is. One Life’s wholehearted embrace of that sentiment is the root of its limitations – and its potency too. Read full review
80
Total FilmJames MottramOct 12, 2023
With a quality cast (which also includes Lena Olin as Winton’s wife and Jonathan Pryce as his friend), this is a finely crafted film that unfolds with great care, building towards a cathartic climax. Read full review
75
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliMar 15, 2024
One Life feels like something straight out of the 1990s when many low-key, non-U.S. dramas were being embraced by art house devotees and more adventurous multiplex visitors. The movie is neither showy nor ostentatious. It tells a story in a workmanlike fashion that allows viewers to learn a little bit more about the central figure and why his life is deserving of a big-screen treatment. Read full review
75
RogerEbert.comNell MinowMar 15, 2024
The flashback scenes are not as compelling as they try to be. The Hopkins scenes are more engaging, not just because we look forward to the re-enactment of the television reveal, but because the film is sharper at addressing the existential issues of purpose and meaning than it is in showing us the difficulties in rescuing the children. Read full review
75
The Associated PressJocelyn NoveckMar 14, 2024
The emotional payoff takes a while to arrive, but once it does in the last act of this film, you’ll have a hard time forgetting Hopkins’ face. Read full review
75
IndieWireSophie Monks KaufmanSep 9, 2023
The undeniably moving nature of Winton and his associates’ deeds swell the narrative with rich emotional currents, however the film’s bid for consistent quality is kneecapped by a ridiculously on-the-nose script. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesKatie WalshMar 15, 2024
The emotional resonance comes not from the dramatic wartime events, but rather from the long-term effects of Winton’s efforts many years later. Read full review
70
Little White LiesAdam WoodwardJan 3, 2024
This is also a film that benefits from occasional glimmers of lightness, which contribute to a more rounded sense of who Winton was as a person while providing some respite from the weighty subject matter. Read full review
70
VarietyAlissa SimonSep 11, 2023
Although the film as a whole struggles to match the poignancy of its finale . . . it nevertheless serves as an urgent reminder of the importance of individual action at a time when the world refugee crisis is at a scale not seen since the Second World War. Read full review
67
Austin ChronicleKimberley JonesMar 13, 2024
There’s something a little pious about how resistant the film is to portraying Nicky not just as an admirable character but as an interesting one, too. Read full review
65
Paste MagazineBrogan MorrisMar 14, 2024
Well-acted and competently told, One Life arrives in the wake of two of the most formally and intellectually rigorous examples of cinema yet made on the Holocaust, and it can’t help but appear a little flimsy in comparison. Read full review
63
Movie NationRoger MooreMar 14, 2024
The movie’s third act is wholly about how this forgotten story came back to light, and while it is moving, it’s ungainly, and as generic as much of what’s come before. Read full review
63
New York PostJohnny OleksinskiSep 11, 2023
When a movie wades into the vast pool of World War II and Holocaust titles, the viewer expects a splash. One Life is, at best, a spritz. It delivers a lot of what we’ve already seen before, but on a less-than-cinematic scale. Yet spending some time with Hopkins and exploring a speck of light in one of the world’s darkest chapters is just satisfying enough. Read full review
60
The Observer (UK)Wendy IdeJan 10, 2024
While Winton’s achievements and his dedication were remarkable, the film-making here is less so. There’s little to set One Life apart from the very crowded field of films exploring equally laudable tales of second world war heroism. Read full review
60
The IndependentClarisse LoughreyJan 5, 2024
A great actor shouldn’t only be judged on what they can do with a masterful script, but also on how they can take a lesser work and still let it soar. Anthony Hopkins has achieved this with grace in One Life, a somewhat thin, reductively sentimental retelling of the life of British humanitarian Sir Nicholas Winton, which its star has empowered with raw, much-needed complexity. Read full review
60
EmpireKelechi EhenuloDec 20, 2023
The over-familiar story-beats and safe execution stop this from reaching its full potential — but Hopkins and Flynn shine, providing a moving portrayal of Winton’s life. Read full review
60
Time OutIan FreerNov 15, 2023
Held back by a more conservative aesthetic and emotional approach, One Life comes nowhere near the power and veracity of Steven Spielberg’s film. But it does have an ace in the hole in Anthony Hopkins, whose performance delivers a subtle but profound gut-punch. Read full review
60
The Hollywood ReporterLeslie FelperinSep 11, 2023
In some ways, it’s one of Hopkins’ best performances from the last few years, beautifully underplayed, eschewing mannerisms or silly accents. It’s just a shame the film itself, directed by James Hawes, with a script by Lucinda Coxon and Nick Drake, is a bit worthy and diagrammatic. Read full review
60
Screen DailyNikki BaughanSep 10, 2023
This is an undeniably moving story, and Winson — who died in 2015 aged 106 — a man worth honouring, but One Life comes across as an orchestrated tearjerker. Read full review
60
The GuardianBenjamin LeeSep 10, 2023
It’s in the scenes from the late 80s, which slowly start to take centre stage, that the film finds more original footing, exploring with nuance the realities of living with the weight of doing so much yet thinking of it as so little. Read full review
58
The PlaylistGregory EllwoodSep 10, 2023
For the most part, One Life is chronicling very familiar WW II territory. It’s not difficult to prompt genuine tension from these horrific events, but Hawes’ depiction of them is simply too conservative. Read full review
50
The New York TimesBen KenigsbergMar 14, 2024
In trying to capture this almost stoic modesty, the film, directed by James Hawes, falls into a dramaturgical trap. Read full review
40
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Radheyan SimonpillaiMar 14, 2024
Throughout it all, Winton remains a cypher. There’s no curiosity here about him or the people he dedicated his time to. There’s no emotional journey to help us understand him and the stubborn modesty that made him so reluctant to share his story. Read full review
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