With a scorching opening, the film portrays the terror raining from above and the fires at ground level in London of World War 2. Respite is found underground, and with Paul Weller in a lead role invariably I was put in mind of the song he wrote for his band The Jam called “Down In the Tube Station at Midnight.” And it is there where his daughter Rita determines that she must send her son to the country for safety as part of the children’s evacuation.
Weller puts his musical chops to good effect, he is seen often noodling at the family piano and leading a family sing along.
The look of the film is stunning. The brass band’s uniforms, the all-female munitions factory, the myriad vehicles and the bombed out streets are thoroughly evocative.
Ten year old George won’t have any of it, he wants to be back home. As played by the scrappy and effervescent Elliott Heffernan, George’s journey back to London is the centerpiece of the film. In his film debut, Heffernan could not have picked a better role. The horrors of war are seen through his eyes, and the film is often shot at his level. At one point he falls into a scenario reminiscent of “Oliver.”
There’s also another sequence in a dance hall with a single long take, reminiscent of a similar famous scene in “Goodfellas.”
Writer and director Steve McQueen is expert in handling the all-too-pervasive racial discrimination as well as the wonderful ubiquity of music. The latter is a respite and the former is all too ugly.
As George wends his way home, his mother Rita (Saoirse Ronan) is going through the turmoil of sending her son away. Ronan is marvelous, showing strength on the outside and a fair measure of doubt on the inside. Her acting range is impressive, having assayed dry humor in Greta Gerwig’s “Lady Bird” and complex drama in “Atonement.”
Hans Zimmer’s score is especially poignant.
The film successfully delivers a compelling balance of the “Keep Calm and Carry On” mantra and the internal intensity of personal loss.
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