Film Review - One Life (2023)

The media dubbed him “The British Schindler”. Nicholas Winton’s story came to light in the late 80s but, until then, it had been locked away in a desk drawer since WWII and few people had any idea that the practical, unassuming stockbroker had rescued 669 Jewish children from the Nazis. He quietly resisted attempts to make a film about his dramatic rescue mission and One Life, released on New Year’s Day, is based on the only book that he agreed to being written about him. The author was his daughter, Barbara.

During the late 1930s, the younger Winton (Anthony Hopkins) was haunted by the ninth one: it was stopped by the German invasion of Czechoslovakia. In his retirement, his attempt to interest his local paper in the story got nowhere, but it reached the ears of BBC TV’s popular That’s Life. For a light-hearted show, it was a heavyweight story, but one that generated national – and international – attention.

Like the man at its centre, One Life is quiet, modest and restrained in its storytelling, making it an affecting and unexpectedly contemporary film. It’s also suitably respectful of its subject and characters, which has the downside of occasionally limiting its emotional appeal. But tissues are most definitely needed for the re-creation of Winton’s appearance on That’s Life. His wife, Grete (Lena Olin), calls it “such a silly show” – those who it probably wouldn’t disagree – but the moment when he comes face to face with a studio audience made up of the now-adult refugees and their descendants will give your heart strings the hardest of tugs. It’s irresistibly the emotional climax of the film and gets to the heart of the matter – that one person, with or without others, can make a difference. As the film tells us, “save one person, save the world.”

Hopkins is in understated mode in a performance of both empathy and subtlety that also gives the film a touch of authority. Even more interesting is the seamless transition between him and Johnny Flynn as his younger self. Both have the same mannerisms, gestures and ways of speaking, making it unusually easy to imagine the younger man turning into the older one. With the formidable Helena Bonham Carter as Winton’s mother and Ramola Garai as the pragmatic leader of his team in Prague, it’s populated with class acts, all worthy tributes to the actual people concerned. But it’s worthy in another, and less successful, way. Despite its heart-rending climax, there are times when that reticent style keeps a tight rein on the emotion built into the story so that it only occasionally reaches the heights it aims for. What is a fitting tribute to a dignified hero doesn’t always touch the soul.