One Life

"He who saves one life, saves the world entire."

Anthony Hopkins has always been brilliant at conveying so much about his characters, even when he isn't speaking.

That makes him a brilliant choice to play Sir Nicholas "Nicky" Winton, a man who saved 600 children from the invading Nazis in Czechoslovakia, in the months leading up to WW2.

Stoic, more concerned with preserving history than portraying himself as having had any kind of role in it, Nicky is turned down by numerous agencies and museums in his attempts to preserve stories of the children's rescue.

The film flashes back and forth between Winton's life as a quiet senior with his wife Greta (Lena Olin) and the PRE-WW2 events that led to him saving the children.

Johnny Flynn (The Outfit) plays young Nicky, an innocent accountant drawn into the humanitarian crisis as refugees flood across borders into Prague. The more involved he becomes, the more devoted he and his close friends are to the cause.

Helena Bonham-Carter (Fight Club, Sweeney Todd) is Johnny's Mom, pulled passionately into the plight of the kids. Watching them fight the English bureaucracy as the Nazis continue their march creates plenty of tension.

We deftly pop back and forth from the pre-war battles to Sir Nicholas in the modern day. In the modern thread, things take a dramatic turn when Winton visits Betty Maxwell, a wealthy woman whose husband owns an influential paper. Maxwell is played by Marthe Keller (Black Sunday, Marathon Man) and it's the first time I've seen her on screen in 15 years. What a welcome return. She's terrific and serves as an elegant bridge to the final third of the film and a modern part of the true story that's especially intriguing.

Winton is invited onto a popular live BBC TV show called "That's Life", where surprises and many tears await.

Jonathan Pryce (Evita, Tomorrow Never Dies) is a welcome addition as one of Nicky's lifelong friends. Watching Pryce & Hopkins banter at a friendly dinner is like watching two chess masters play. It's a clinic on solid acting and a welcome reunion for the two stars of "The Two Popes". If you haven't seen that one, go do so!

Hopkins is excellent. Watching Winton express emotions he hasn't let loose in decades is palpable and crushing. At 86 years old, Hopkins may move slower, but he's got every bit of his chops at the ready.

It's hard to watch the film and not compare it to the much more graphic, sweeping and massive in scope "Schindler's List", but it doesn't make Winton's true story any less impactful. In fact, in the newspaper obituaries after Sir Nicholas Winton died on July 1st, 2015, the UK press headlines dubbed him 'The British Schindler'.

Winton lived ONE LIFE worth remembering, and the film version lives up to that legacy, earning a solid B.