One Life (2023) Review

Based on the very true story of Nicholas Winton a British humanitarian who helped save the lives of hundreds of children in Central Europe from the Nazis on the eve of World War II.

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We are shown the story of what happened during those weeks/months in the attempt to save as many of the children as possible in flashback form. As it is closing in on the 50th anniversary of the outbreak of the second world war we see Nicholas attempting to sort through many boxes and a rather special case which contained a scrapbook.

Nicholas was a remarkable man and as everyone was fleeing Europe with the Nazi invasions through different countries he went in the opposite direction in an effort to help. It was never going to be an easy task, but a small team would band together in an effort to save the innocent children. His mother Babette Winton would be a key part in helping as well, it seemed as though the British government wanted to make it impossible with £50 per child needed.

In what would be the current day, although 1987 was the year we see that Nicholas had always continuted to do things for different charites and therefore spent his whole life helping others and doing what was right. He wanted the children who didn’t make it to be rememered as well as the ones that were saved, but attempting to get the story out in the right manner was proving to be very difficult.

The film has some truly hard hitting scenes and everything around seeing children being taken and evacuated on trains to a country where they didn’t even speak the language was truly brutal to see. I felt as though these scenes were handled in such a good way that I found myself filling up with tears.

The final moments and seeing the true impact that Nicholas had on the lives he saved was remarkable and certainly a massive bonus when it came to being on That’s Life a BBC tv programme in 1988. It’s truly incredible that for those 50 years hardly anyone knew just how amazing he was as a person and the lengths he went to in saving innocent children. It has to be said that a person like this and a story of saving so many lives is something that should be told and remembered.

The casting was very good with both Anthony Hopkins and Johnny Flynn both sharing the role of Nicholas Winton and being such a strong and developed man and character was really good to watch unfold. Helena Bonham Carter always manages to have some scene stealing moments and this was no different, the same can be said for the small part that Jonathan Pryce played, always great to see him on screen.