One Life ★★★

GUILLERMO del Toro has allegedly said he would gladly transfer a few years of his own life to Martin Scorsese so the latter could keep making films.

I wouldn’t do the same for Anthony Hopkins, but I do hope he never retires.

After 50-odd years he is one of the last British stars of the classic era still going strong and giving us beautifully natural performances.

His latest effort is playing the real-life Nicholas Winton in the 2023 biographical drama One Life.

You may have seen the YouTube video featuring Winton in a talk show. If you haven’t, I won’t reveal what happens.

As a young man in the late 1930s Winton was very concerned at the increasing anti-Semitic movement in Germany which would quickly give rise to Nazism and World War II.

Winston’s humanitarian streak saw him quit his promising career as a stockbroker to help other volunteers in Czechoslovakia.

He was instrumental in forming and carrying out plans to rescue Jewish children and send them to Britain where they were adopted into families.

It’s what you would call a well-meaning crowd-pleaser of a film that doesn’t reach any great heights but tells its story efficiently, hitting a few emotional beats along the way.

Hopkins plays the older Winton reflecting back and wondering what happened to the young children he helped to rescue, while Johnny Flynn is also good as the younger version.

Helena Bonham Carter, Lena Olin and the always great Jonathan Pryce are also in the cast.