True-life drama about efforts to transport refugee children to safety ahead of Nazi invaders
Directed by James Hawes. Starring Anthony Hopkins, Johnny Flynn, Lena Olin, Helena Bonham Carter, Romola Garai, Adrian Rawlins, Jonathan Pryce.“Save one life, save the world”: Taken from Talmudic writing, it’s the animating idea behind this historical drama and the inspiration for its title – a title that, in turns, represents an astonishing understatement, and accidentally diagnoses the thing most getting in the way of its success as a compelling work of adaptation.
The film is quite gripping in its attention to the bureaucratic hurdles and mind-boggling logistics that Nicky and soon his mother , a German-Jewish refugee herself, must surmount to start moving children to safety. But the emphasis on Nicky’s perspective, in two different timelines, hardly leaves any time left over to individuate the children or properly dramatize the terrible choice their parents have to make.