“Blitz” A review.
Steve McQueen’s heartfelt war drama struggles to cut through the noise When discussing his latest work, McQueen keeps highlighting his interest in portraying the truth behind British mythology. Well-known for adapting historical horrors with both tact and thrill, the director tackles what may be his biggest fictional project to date. The result is a deeply earnest f ilm about family and community that struggles to walk the line between epic and bloated.
Taking place during the titular Blitz, the German bombing campaign against British cities in the 1940s, we meet George (Elliot Heffernan), a mixed-race boy living with his white mother, Rita (Saoirse Ronan). When London is deemed no longer safe for children, George is separated from his mother and forced to evacuate to the countryside. Unhappy about being taken from his home, George begins a journey back to the city. We follow both mother and son navigate 1940’s London, encountering both kindness and hostility in the collapsing city.
The film follows an almost adventure-like structure, with every interaction George and Rita have with London unveiling a new aspect of the city. In his search for truth, Mcqueen uses his wartime setting to reveal the cracks and crevices of British Society. The consciously active inclusion of black, brown, and Asian communities challenges the perception of the “British” in Bellic storytelling while managing to prevent the film from feeling like a history lecture. Through George’s young perspective, we unveil the cruelest and most selfish parts of society and its capacity to love, unite and support. McQueen’s handling of this thematic juxtaposition saves the film from total tonal dissonance, with an intimate moment such as an embrace by the piano from grandfather, mother and son, feeling as epic as a nerve-racking bombing sequence.
However, it is ultimately due to this massive scope that the film doesn’t seem to round off all its ideas. As George’s journey gets increasingly melodramatic, almost bordering on the over-the-top, Rita’s storyline appears to get quietly sidetracked in favour of epic set pieces. With an uneven third act and a massively underwhelming use of Harris Dickinson, the film feels disjointed and inconclusive. Saoirse Ronan brings a level of maturity and gravitas to her role, which works to distract the audience from the fact that aside from being a “good mother” and “likes to sing”, we know very little about Rita. The scenes featuring Rita by herself tend to feel aimless, even more so when directly compared to the amount of traumatic experiences George packs in this 2 hour run time.
There lies the film’s biggest fault, its eagerness to pack so much in. Even the choice of having two co-leads, instead of committing to focus exclusively on George’s perspective, ends up acting to its detriment in its emotional conclusion. While in the hands of a lesser filmmaker, the movie would run the risk of feeling uncertain and generic, McQueen’s style injects the film with enough heart, personality and purpose. From vibrating party sequences reminiscent of Lovers Rock (2020) to dramatic set pieces that feel organic and easy, McQueen knows his strengths and plays to them. It is his heartfelt atmosphere and defined perspective that saves the film from being a complete disjointed mess.
