海角大神

Actors who play famous people are almost always at a disadvantage with audiences. We can鈥檛 help but compare the facsimile with the original. This deficit is especially true of actors who play politicians 鈥� unless, of course, we鈥檙e talking about satirical take-offs 脿 la Alec Baldwin鈥檚 Donald Trump. Too often, even when the renditions are expert, as with, say, James Whitmore鈥檚 Harry Truman or Edward Herrmann鈥檚 Franklin Delano Roosevelt, we watch the performances with a built-in reserve. In visual terms, at least, they can鈥檛 help but pale next to the originals, even though what we may know of the originals is often only gleaned from documentaries. 聽

In the case of Winston Churchill, the problem is compounded by the fact that the great Briton was already so theatrical a presence, with a voice and delivery so familiar and inimitable, that, in a sense, he was already his own best impersonator.

The highly uneven 鈥淐hurchill,鈥� directed by Jonathan Teplitzky, serves up Brian Cox as the latest in a long line of Churchill impersonators, following such actors as Albert Finney, Brendan Gleeson, Timothy Spall, John Lithgow, Michael Gambon, and Richard Burton. In some ways, Cox is among the better ones, not only because, especially with a weight gain and a shaved head as part of the package, he resembles Churchill more than most of the others. He also brings to the fore the private Churchill that was often hidden behind the public persona.

Teplitzky and his screenwriter, Alex von Tunzelmann, may have overdone Churchill鈥檚 private side. For most of the time, we are privy to a man who is sullen, boozed up, and at times near catatonic. The film becomes more about Churchill鈥檚 battle to conquer himself than about the Allies鈥� battle to defeat the Nazis.

Teplitzky sets the depresso tone early on when we see Churchill, in heavy overcoat and homburg, walking alone along the coast of the English Channel in southern England, as he imagines a blood-red sea. He is recalling the Gallipoli Campaign of 1915, which he championed and which became a notorious failure for the Allies. The film is set shortly before the D-Day invasion. Churchill, as prime minister, is afraid of a repeat of the Gallipoli debacle and has yet to fully endorse the operation, much to the consternation of Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower (John Slattery), supreme commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force, and Gen. Bernard Montgomery (Julian Wadham), British commander of the Allied ground troops. 聽

In reality, Churchill had fully committed to the invasion by the time D-Day approached, but the film鈥檚 compression of several months of wavering into several days, complete with a last-minute change of heart, is, I suppose, dramatically, if not historically, justifiable. It鈥檚 often been debated what exactly compelled Churchill to reverse course. The film鈥檚 supposition 鈥� that he needed to rouse himself out of his deep depression and overcome his fear of another Gallipoli 鈥� is simplistic but believable.聽

Of course, since we know what the outcome to all this will be, the film tries to make everything as interesting, in personal terms, as possible. Churchill鈥檚 wife, Clementine (Miranda Richardson), is given a big boost in this process: It is she who recognizes even more than her husband his historical destiny.聽

She also puts up with an awful lot from him. With lesser mortals, his surly outbursts and mammoth moodiness would be enough to clear the room and close the marriage. 鈥淐hurchill鈥� plays into the ho-hum Behind Every Great Man Is a Great Woman scenario, but there were times when I wondered why Clemmie, rather than Winnie, wasn鈥檛 running the country, if not the world. If she can manage this husband, surely she should be able to manage Britain.聽

Cox has always been a hulking, somewhat fearful presence 鈥� it鈥檚 no accident he was the first screen incarnation of Hannibal Lecter, in 鈥淢anhunter,鈥� and he has also played Joseph Stalin and Hermann G枚ring. In 鈥淐hurchill,鈥� he employs his bulk more for pathos than for intimidation. Given the potential for scenery-chewing here, Cox is surprisingly restrained even in his moments of highest dudgeon. (Perhaps the film鈥檚 skimpy production design helped with this restraint: There鈥檚 not a whole lot of scenery to chew.) I鈥檓 not sure it鈥檚 a vast improvement over the usual iconic approach to memorialize Churchill as a boozy sufferer who somehow, heroically, transcended himself. Too often 鈥淐hurchill鈥� feels more like an expos茅 than a deep-dish psychological exploration. Still, there are moments in Cox鈥檚 performance when we can locate the living, breathing man inside the commemorative statue, and that鈥檚 not nothing. Grade: B- (Rated PG for thematic elements, brief war images, historical smoking throughout, and some language.)