New to Netflix UK this month is Darkest Hour, a World War 2 drama and critical darling. Set in the early days of the war from the perspective of the UK’s newly elected prime minister, Gary Oldman is unrecognisable in his turn as Winston Churchill.
The war drama racked up nominations at the Academy Awards, BAFTAs, Golden Globes, and more, ultimately netting Oldman an Oscar for Best Actor. Directed by Joe Wright, who also helmed the war romance film Atonement, is set in one pivotal month wherein Churchill must decide whether to negotiate peace with Hitler or fight. Netflix subscribers can stream the Oscar-winning flick once again as of July 2025.
The film has a 84% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. The critics consensus reads: “Darkest Hour is held together by Gary Oldman’s electrifying performance, which brings Winston Churchill to life even when the movie’s narrative falters.”
Critics also compared it to Dunkirk, with Damon Wise of the Radio Times dubbing Darkest Hour a “near-perfect companion piece” to the film.
Praise for Oldman’s performance was near-universal, although critics were more divided about the Churchill biopic as a whole.
“It’s an amazing performance: the only star turn I’ve seen in which a famous actor visible in nearly every scene would be unrecognisable if we didn’t know his name already,” wrote The Financial Times.
As The New Yorker put it: “How badly we need another Winston Churchill film is open to question. Nonetheless, Joe Wright’s contribution to the genre is welcome, largely because of Gary Oldman in the leading role.”
Nevertheless, Metro said Wright brought his “trademark flashes of visual aplomb” as a director, noting: “[He] captures the peril of Nazi invasion with thrilling immediacy, despite being almost entirely confined to the claustrophobic corridors of power.
The World War 2 film captures a short but critical time in British history. Set in May 1940, the film begins as Neville Chamberlain is forced to resign as prime minister amid much Labour opposition.
Churchill, unliked even by his own party, becomes PM as Nazi forces advance west. Under pressure to negotiate a peace treaty with Germany, the new PM faces a cabinet ready to revolt.
Nevertheless, Churchill initiates the Dunkirk evacuation termed Operation Dynamo. Ultimately, the film ends with Goldman delivering Churchill’s famous ‘We shall fight on the beaches’ speech to the House of Commons that rallied public support for the war.
Darkest Hour has a ‘fresh’ rating on Rotten Tomatoes at 82%. One user said: “The film has it’s flaws, but Gary Oldman is phenomenal in this.”
On Google, a viewer wrote: “Darkest Hour is so well crafted on a whole movie level start to finish and so well acted and again I got teared up a couple times last night after seeing DH again finally and that to me is a movie doing its job being powerful as it is!”
With 800 likes, the most popular Letterbox review joked: “I want a cage match with Joe Wright and Tom Hooper [director of The King’s Speech].”
On the MoviePassClub Reddit forum, one fan said they liked it more than Dunkirk: “Great performance in a pretty good movie. I definitely enjoyed Darkest Hour more than Dunkirk, as Dunkirk did not make us care about any of its characters, other than wondering what the writers or director thought killing off the youngster in the boat accomplished for their story. Anyhow, a whole lot more context in the Churchill story than in the Dunkirk movie.”