One Life follows the life of Sir Nicholas Winton, the man who rescued over 600 children from Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia. As a banker, he had visited Prague and saw the horrors of families who were taking refuge from Hitler’s advances. The movie is led by a great performance by Sir Anthony Hopkins and Johnny Flynn as Winton, and Helena Bonham Carter as his mother.
The story is told from two perspectives: young and old Winton. As a young man, he is balancing his career with the responsibility of doing anything in his power to save those most vulnerable. He pulls all the strings he must line up these children with visas and foster homes to get them to safety. Flynn does a good job working fast and deliberately. He does not have time to emote with all the children he is going to save.
As an older man, Winton is very reminiscent. He is tasked by his wife to clear up his office space for a party, and his journals and scrapbooks bring up his old memories. He doesn’t know what he should do with his records until they end up in the hands of the production team from the show That’s Life! Now this is all based on a true event where the show surprises Winton by filling the audience with the people he saved.
The movie is very gutting thanks to those two’s performances. In the last half, especially for Hopkins, I felt like I was on the verge of tears every scene he’s in. Flynn is equally powerful in his time, in his own way.
The story is incredibly tough to watch emotionally. It becomes incredibly stressful as Winton has to race against the Nazis to save as many children as he can, and he becomes remorseful he couldn’t save more. Maybe it’s because I watched Schindler’s List right after this, but it was just gutting knowing they carried that guilt until their deaths.
FINAL THOUGHTS
One Life is a sombering tale of the heroics of Sir Nicholas Winton. While there have been other movies about what he did, this one piques my interest by the way it tells the tale from his older and younger self. Both Sir Anthony Hopkins and Johnny Flynn are great as Winton and it is a movie that will sit heavy in your stomach after watching it.
