With due credit going to both the cinematography and production design, there is no shortage of elegance and magnificence in Winston Churchill’s aristocratic home or King George VI’s palace — but the movie also offers up some perfect contrast with the stark, dark, greyness of the war rooms where the gravest and most important decisions are made about the future of the country.
The persistent beautiful image of curling cigar smoke caught in sunbeams is the perfectly lit cherry on top.
Our review: Unlike Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk, which showcased a very different side of the same time period and events earlier this year, Darkest Hour isn’t a war film built on explosions and spectacle, but it is stunningly gorgeous all the same.