‘Pressure’ Review: Andrew Scott and Brendan Fraser Go Toe-to-Toe in an Absorbing Tale of How the Weather Won the War
Adapted from David Haig's 2014 play, Anthony Maras' straightforward, well-mounted WWII drama covers perhaps the one aspect of D-Day that hasn't yet been made into a movie: its meteorological planning.
By Guy Lodge
Plus IconGuy Lodge
Film Critic
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The British obsession with the weather goes from an easily mocked national quirk to a world-beating point of pride in “Pressure,” a handsome, efficient WWII drama that doesn’t go quite so far as to say a weatherman won the war, but wouldn’t mind one bit if that’s what you came away believing. The “weatherman,” in fact, is Captain James Stagg, the leading Scottish meteorologist who was appointed the Chief Meteorological Officer for Operation Overlord, reporting to General Dwight D. Eisenhower in determining just what day to make D-Day. If that sounds like less than riveting drama, you underestimate both the eternally unpredictable vagaries of the English summer, and the formidable magnetism of one Andrew Scott as Stagg, staunchly arguing with Brendan Fraser‘s Eisenhower about the rain as if thousands of lives depend on it — because, this time, they do.
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