NYFF Film Review: ‘Blitz’ Finds Steve McQueen Telling a Dickensian World War II Tale

For a British filmmaker like Steve McQueen, the events taking place during Blitz are hugely meaningful. So, it’s not surprising that the movie handles the infamous World War II bombing of London tremendously well. At the same time, the flick ends up surrounding that by a fairly generic human story, one that feels more at home in Charles Dickens than in a McQueen picture. Playing as the Closing Night selection of the New York Film Festival, it sends the fest out in a decent but somewhat unexceptional note.

Blitz only feels like a slight letdown due to how much of a master McQueen has proven to be. His decision to make this a Dickensian tale is somewhat puzzling though. There’s a fascinating historical/war drama playing out alongside what almost would be a dark Disney movie. The two sides don’t always mesh well, in my humble opinion. It limits how effective the film can be, which keeps it from greatness.

Taking place during the German’s bombing of London during World War II, the film introduces us to Rita (Saoirse Ronan) and her nine year old son George (Elliott Heffernan). Like so many others, not only has Rita started working at a factory making munitions to help with the war effort, she’s also opted to sent George away to the safety of the English countryside. Saying goodbye at the train station, George is mean to Rita, but soon after the train leaves, he decides he wants to return home. So, he hops off and beings an epic journey.

As George heads back towards East London, where his mother and grandfather Gerald (Paul Weller) live, Rita is finding out that her son is missing. She begins her search, while George encounters danger after danger, with the nightly bombing raids always looming in the background. Flashbacks introduce us to happier times, as well as memories of George’s father Marcus (CJ Beckford), though even those contain cruel reminders of racism for Rita.

Saoirse Ronan leads the way here, even though Elliott Heffernan is ostensibly the star. There’s a strength to Ronan that overcomes a sense that she’s just a simple beacon of good. She’s not playing a complex character, to be fair, but she plays it well. Heffernan is solid, but he’s mostly just reacting to the horrors he experiences. Paul Weller is a gentle yet nonintrusive presence. Harris Dickinson does show up in the back half, but his character feels fairly extraneous and there’s not enough development there to matter. In addition to the aforementioned CJ Beckford, other supporting players include Kathy Burke, Benjamin Clémentine, Stephen Graham, and more.

Writer/director Steve McQueen hasn’t lost his technical touch, as seen in an opening sequence depicting a bombing run, as well as the attempts by the fire brigade to put out a blaze. The cinematography from Yorick Le Saux and the score by Hans Zimmer are all top notch. McQueen directs the hell out of that aspect of the film. The writing, sadly, feels more generic, leading to feeling like this is a movie that someone other than McQueen could have made. The kid’s story, as well as most of the character work, is too simple in Blitz. McQueen doing Dickens just doesn’t land like he intended it to.

Blitz shows that McQueen can elevate a generic premise, but it also shows that said premise can also bring McQueen back down to Earth a bit. That combination makes this film a decent but not exceptional closer for NYFF. A generation ago, this movie would have dominated the Academy Awards. Now, it’s more of a question mark as to how it will do with Oscar. Either way, it presents a quality new McQueen work, albeit one that doesn’t leave as much impact as usual.

SCORE: ★★★