All of the acting in Darkest Hour is very good, especially by Gary Oldman who is virtually unrecognisable in the role of Churchill. His wife Clemmie is played by Kristin Scott Thomas, who makes the most of a fairly limited role. The audience's view of the action is represented by Elizabeth Layton, Churchill's personal secretary played by Lily Allen. New to Churchill's employ, she is at first intimidated by the mercurial and sometimes bombastic leader, but soon grows fascinated by the work and fiercely loyal to the ageing P.M.
Darkest Hour doesn't exactly cover new ground: there have been many films which have been made about Churchill, Dunkirk, and World War II, obviously. Just a few years ago I watched the 2002 movie The Gathering Storm, which is about Churchill's "wilderness years" in the thirties before becoming prime minister. And of course, Christopher Nolan's Dunkirk is about just that. But that doesn't render the events covered in this movie any less fascinating, for me in any case. Hindsight is twenty/twenty, but at the time Britain was looking at what showed every sign of being a complete rout and military disaster. For those urging for a peace agreement with Hitler, it seemed a choice between refusing to yield and having their island invaded and decimated, or making a deal with the devil, leading to subjugation but hopefully not destruction. For Churchill and those like-minded however, this choice was untenable. For one thing, Hitler was notorious for not keeping his word... just ask Stalin or heck, for that matter, Chamberlain. Go figure- the sadistic totalitarian dictator was also a filthy liar. Also, there were some things that simply could not be countenanced and bending the knee to Nazi Germany was one of them. Better, as Churchill said, to fight them whenever and wherever necessary, and never surrender. In addition, the story of Operation Dynamo will never not be thrilling.