When I heard the title of the new Anthony Hopkins film, it reminded me of all those Hacksaw Ridge trailers where Andrew Garfield would say “…just one more”. Sadly, One Life, is an abandoned Oscar bait film. This happened to a few films released at the end of the year, when the distributor behind the film already had their primary contenders. This is like the “in case of emergency, break glass”, except that for a random recognition from the BAFTA’s, One life went largely without being lauded. Neon did the same thing with origin, A24 had The iron Claw, Amazon had The Boys In The Boat, and so on. Late stage Oscar entries that went nowhere.

Anthony Hopkins is actually quite good in one Life, playing the older half of a real life hero, a man who devoted his life to trying to save as many Jewish refugee children as humanly possible during World War II. We see him played in his younger days by Johnny Flynn, as that story is shaped out, and we see what the risk was, and how hard it was to make choices in order to try and save anyone he could. But, as an older man, even though he saved a significant amount of life, he’s haunted more by those he couldn’t save. He feels guilt, despite making every effort, and that’s where the film builds to an emotional impact not really fully realized since Schindler’s List.

Not to get too spoilery, but there’s an emotionally manipulative ending that works two-fold. Not only is it set up perfectly, but you are also told that many of the people featured in that sequence were people who were alive today because of someone he saved during World War II. His impact is still felt, and incredibly personal to real people who felt the need to participate in a way that helped to authenticate this biopic. If you were thinking perhaps that his work wasn’t quite enough, they are here to tell you it was.

My only negative here, is that while Flynn is a decent talent, he’s no Anthony Hopkins, and every time I was in the flashback mode, I wanted to be with Hopkins, who has mastered the subtle art of the physical manifestation of gravitas. He’s also even more effective here than he was in his other biopic last year, Freud’s Last Session.

The audio description certainly seemed to assist in landing that emotional impact in the ending, so I have to give Helen Bassey who wrote the audio description script found a way to bring this all full circle much like the film does. Of course, this is Deluxe, and they basically always knock it out of the park.The film is narrated by Alan B.

If you have a chance to check out One life, it is one of those rare films that actually got me to tear up. i was there. The ending of this, i recognize is so manipulative, but without a strong story, and fantastic performance from Hopkins, I don’t think the manipulation would have worked.

Final Grade: A-