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Sexuality/Nudity No Objection
Violence Mature
Vulgarity Mature
Anti-Catholic Philosophy Mature
This movie succeedes in taking something that is normally thought of as trivial into something fascinating and pivotal.
Pressure centers around the D-Day invasion. James Stagg (Andrew Scott) is a British officer who is also the top meteorologist in his field. He has been recommended to General Dwight Eisenhower (Brendan Fraser) to advise about the weather for the planned D-Day invasion. The window to invade is very narrow and if Stagg makes the wrong call it could mean the death of thousands at best or the loss of the war at worst. To make things more difficult, one of his fellow meteorologists Irving Krick (Chris Messina) continually conflicts with Stagg's methods and predictions. This leaves Eisenhower the unenviable task of deciding whom to listen to: does he go with his hopes or his fears? As the deadline approaches the pressure (pun intended) mounts.
What this movie does so well is that it takes something as mundane as the weather and makes it absolutely fascinating. The movie addresses this when Eisenhower's assistant (and implied mistress) Kay Summersby (Kerry Condon) says to Stagg that the weather is boring, he replies, "How can the weather be boring? It feeds us. The weather can destroy us. It controls our daily life. I don't think that's boring." It is incumbent on the movie to make us care, not just tell us to care. Movies like The Devil Wears Prada take something uninteresting to me like fashion and make me fascinated by it. Movies like The Bikeriders tell me that I should care about a motorcycle club, but never really give me a reason why. Pressure is more like the former than the latter. Through Stagg, we are brought into the intricacies and complexities of meteorology in a way that doesn't feel condescending but also is understandable.
The story originated as a stage play and it has that confined feeling to it. Almost the entire movie takes place in the Allied Command Center. The movie is a drama about human beings being pushed to make an impossible decision on something as unpredictable as the weather. There are no certaintites except that the wrong choice is disaster. At one point someone asks Stagg if he is certain about his prediction and his says firmly that he is not because nature is not completely predictable.
One of the things that makes this movie so interesting is that there are no villains in this movie. While Krick disagrees with Stagg, he does so because he thinks he is right and wants what is best for the war. He is just as confident and good-willed as Stagg. General Montgomery (Damian Lewis) pushes Stagg to be less pessimistic in his predictions, but the general does so because he truly believes that delay would be disaster for the war. While characters are hampered by ego and pride, all of the people who are fighting in the room are doing so because they genuinely want the best result and are all on the same side. This is part of what makes the tension so wonderfully terrible is this horrible feeling that Stagg could be wrong and everyone else could be right. Could Stagg, in fact, be the secret antagonist? This is the lingering question for Eisenhower and the audience.
The performances are good all around. Scott plays Stagg very much like Benedict Cumberbatch did for Alan Turring in The Imitation Game: he is the aloof genius who rubs people the wrong way because he thinks being right is the only thing that matters. Fraser plays Eisenhower as a man with the weight of the world on his shoulders. Even though Stagg makes the prediction, it is ultimately Eisenhower's call. Fraser plays him as a man who projects authority, even sometimes a bullying nature in public, but behind closed doors the doubts naw at him. In those quiet moments, Fraser lets us see worry in his eyes. Condon does a good job of trying to bring out the humanity in bother Stagg and Eisenhower in a way that is strong without losing her femininity. Messina plays the Krick with a lot of bravado, but is able to add depths as the movie goes on. Lewis plays Montgomery as fairly flat, but there isn't much for him to work with in the script so he does the best that he can.
Director Anthony Maras does a good job of taking this claustrophobic setting and making you feel the larger picture in the world. There are occasional shots of the D-Day invasion and preparation, but ultimately, he needs you to feel the world outside without showing it to you much. And he does this very well. He understands that by focusing on the emotional tension of the characters that we can feel the how desperate the world situation is.
There is a small moment that could be seen as a slight dig at Christianity, but it is so subtle that I'm not sure that it counts. There is a moment when most of the characters are praying in chapel on Sunday but Stagg only looks at them from the outside. And since he is our point-of-view character, we see alienation from these outward displays of faith. But like I said, it is so subtle that this could simply be in my mind as a viewer. Also, the implication of the affair between the married Eisenhower and Summersby is subtle, but enough to make me uncomfortable in the fact that no one seems to have a problem with the morality of it.
Despite these small issues, the movie achieves its objective in drawing us in. Stagg himself goes through an arc where he learns to rely on others and comes to respect those around him. And in the same way, you as an audience member come to respect all of the men and women who worked so hard and chanced so much to stop the greatest war the world has seen.
