pressure
★★★.5
starring: andrew scott, brendon fraser, kerry condon, and damian lewis
REVIEWER: lyall carter
In the tense 72 hours before D-Day, General Dwight D. Eisenhower and Captain James Stagg face an impossible choice--launch the most dangerous seaborne invasion in history or risk losing the war altogether.
If someone had told me there was going to be a feature film about the weather calls around D-Day, I’d have thought they’d been caught in a whirlwind of confusion and madness. Of all the Second World War stories out there, how on earth could a weather forecast become the cinematic focus? Well, I couldn’t have been more wrong. Pressure is a great film. With pressure that ratchets up creating ever increasing tension that nearly sucks all the oxygen out of the cinema, Pressure is a fine example of how a meteorology, something we almost take for granted, was so consequential to the most pivotal battle of the Second World War.
With the largest seaborne invasion in history being prepared, Allied Supreme Commander General Dwight D. Eisenhower (Brendan Fraser) faces an almost impossible decision. At the centre of it all is British meteorologist Group Captain James Stagg (Andrew Scott), whose weather predictions will help determine whether hundreds of thousands of Allied servicemen proceed with the invasion of Nazi-occupied France. With conflicting forecasts, an approaching storm and the fate of the operation hanging in the balance, Stagg must convince military command that his assessment of the weather is correct, knowing that the consequences of getting it wrong could be catastrophic.
At around 100 minutes, Pressure is a quick film by modern standards, but wastes little time establishing the impossible dilemma. Get the weather wrong, catastrophe. Delay too long, the opportunity’s gone, and history might look very different. Narratively, it plays more like a thriller than your typical WWII drama. And most of the time, it nails that.
Still, I did feel some cinematic choices, especially in editing and cinematography, leaned a little too heavily into conventional war drama rhythms. At times, the pressure eases off when it ought to be unbearable, but even so overall, Pressure still builds tension and threads in character beats and subplots that deepen the stakes. The most striking moments come with the landings themselves, cutting between the relative safety of command and the hell on the beaches of Normandy. Your body cannot help but respond in arms covered in goosebumps.
Andrew Scott’s performance is outstanding. He brings humanity and quiet conviction to a man whose 'best guess' could doom thousands, yet he never lets the weight of it all break his resolve. Fraser’s Eisenhower is good too. I adore him, The Mummy, George of the Jungle, and seeing him win that Oscar. But here and there, he slips into a louder, more theatrical mode that feels a touch out of step with the scene. Ultimately, though, Pressure is a fascinating, thoroughly engaging look at a moment we thought we knew inside out. Not quite relentless, but still compelling, and who would have guessed one of the more interesting war films in recent memory would be about the weather?
With pressure that ratchets up creating a tension that nearly sucks all the oxygen out of the cinema, Pressure is a fine example of how meteorology, something we almost take for granted, was so consequential to the most pivotal battle of the Second World War.
★★★.5
