Dunkirk

                   

Christopher Nolan's Dunkirk is a technical triumph, but it is a film that fails to convincingly enact its dramatic core. The aerial sequences of Dunkirk are top notch and the naval sequences are well choreographed. Performances are of a high caliber. This is to be expected from such veterans as Kenneth Branagh, Cillian Murphy, and Tom Hardy, but Nolan also gets good work from newcomers like Fionn Whitehead, Damien Bonnard, and even fricking Harry Styles. The somber photography is well lensed by Hoyte van Hoytema. Hans Zimmer's score frantically and irritatingly attempts to pump up the suspense.

Nolan's script is an interesting one. He weaves three stories of land, sea, and air, whilst shifting the time frame for each tale. He does a better job of delineating the time ruptures than in his somewhat incoherent Inception. Overall, this is his best film since the similarly time warped Memento. However, as a director, he muffs key sequences that detract from the film's power. A confrontation between Mr. Murphy and Mark Rylance, which results in the senseless death of a youth, is poorly blocked out and seems jumbled instead of meaningfully ambivalent. 

Dunkirk has a number of fine moments. The shot of a drowning man's hands clutching for a hold or a blind man readings the face of a returning soldier with his fingers are images I will remember. However, Nolan's inability to flesh out his characters leave this well short of such World War 2 masterpieces as The Air Force, They Were Expendable, Army of Shadows, The Ascent, and The Thin Red Line. (8/16/17)