The Talmud (Sanhedrin 37a): “Whoever saves a single life is considered by scripture to have saved the world.” Director James Hawes introduces audiences to Sir Nicholas Winton (1909-2015), played with inimitable force by Anthony Hopkins, a man who saved 699 children from the incendiary clutches of the Holocaust. Johnny Flynn with iconic dignity depicts “Nicky” as a young stockbroker who is stricken by these innocents, whose only flaw is their Jewishness (Winton’s ancestors changed their name, to escape the “stigma” of their heritage); he bleeds for them and with the aid of courageous individuals and complicated diplomacy transfers them from Prague to London in1939; his mother, magnificently depicted by Helena Bonham Carter (minus Burton Bonkiness) instilled in him the insight and kindness, recognizing that “to whom much is given, much is expected.” They are a team worthy of reverence.
“One Life” commencing in 1987, with appropriate ease weaves the past and present in a tapestry of historical accountability and revelation; Nicky is divesting volumes of saved data, no longer of value, from 1939 and discovers a scrapbook pictorially referencing the saved souls, eventually the focus of television program “That’s Life”; his humble realm, devoid of self-aggrandizement dissolves as survivors’ surface with profound adulation, loyalty, dedication and love.
There are over 6000 people thriving today because of his valorous undertaking; “it takes courage for a person to listen to his own goodness and act on it”. Such a person was Sir Nicholas Winton.
FOUR STARS!!!!
Peneflix