One Life (#527)


To celebrate St. Patrick’s Day I went to a movie.  And for two days in a row I enjoyed the show.  I can’t really describe my emotion as enjoyment, because ONE LIFE was a very sad, very poignant film, based on a true story yet again, about a young British stockbroker in the late 1930s, who leaves his job and goes to Prague because he is distraught over the plight of starving Czech children, living with the threat of a Nazi invasion.  The movie begins with scenes of Anthony Hopkins wandering aimlessly and dodderingly around his obviously expensive country house with swimming  pool in England, and I began to question, as the plot developed, whether the producers were just being nice to Hopkins and letting him play the extraneous role of doddering old man who added nothing to the plot.  Fortunately, things were clarified and it turns out that he is the older version of the stockbroker, Nicholas Winton, who ended up with his team rescuing 669 children and bringing them to England as foster children.  It was an excellent story, and Winton was a real hero who initially received no praise or recognition for this incredible feat.  The only other actor of note was Helena Bonham Carter. who played the young Winton's mother who clearly helped him in his efforts.  Well acted, well filmed and directed, sad but warmly done immigration story unlike the one on our southern border.  That was not meant to be a political statement, and if it offended anyone, I apologize. Critics and audiences agree with me for a change with 89% and 92% respectively giving it a thumbs up.  I am wary of the two films I will see on Monday and Wednesday.  My good fortune can’t last. 

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