‘I don’t know what you’re doing, but if you’re doing what I think you’re doing, I don’t want to know...’
Despite rapidly approaching 90, Anthony Hopkins is showing no signs of slowing down. Since winning his second Oscar for The Father in 2020, Hopkins has appeared in no fewer than nine films (of varying quality). One Life, released in 2023, is perhaps his best role since The Father and it proves beyond doubt that there is life in the old dog yet…
One Life is the true story of London stockbroker Nicky Winter (Hopkins as an older man and Johnny Flynn in the 1930s) and how his determination and drive saved the lives of over 600 children from Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia. This was far from a one-man mission, however, with Winter receiving help from various parties portrayed here by Lena Olin, Helena Bonham Carter and Alex Sharp.
Winter has been dubbed the ‘British Schindler’ and while this film serves as a spiritual sequel to Spielberg’s masterpiece this is far from just a bland retread. Director James Hawes (in his feature-length debut) was alerted to the story after Winter famously appeared on Esther Rantzen’s That’s Life entertainment show where he was reunited with many of the children that he had saved – all of them adults now and many of them with children of their own. It’s a weighty scene that demonstrates that Hopkins for all of his abilities as a showman is at his best when delivering a quieter performance. His scenes are heavy with emotion, particularly in the film’s quietly devastating third act, and he was perhaps unfortunate not to be in the running for a third Oscar.
One Life manages to tell a sentimental story without ever once succumbing to unearned schmaltz. Put simply, this is a life-affirming story told with panache with a gut-wrenching lead performance at its centre.
