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'Blitz' review: In wartime London, a family's search for sanity
Adam Graham
By Detroit News Film Critic A mother and her son are separated in wartime London in "Blitz," director Steve McQueen's drama about clinging onto hope in the middle of chaos.
British actress Saoirse Ronan is Rita, who has to say goodbye to her son George (newcomer Elliott Heffernan, in his first role), who joins the thousands of children who are sent by train to live in the English countryside as Germany throws bombs on London during World War II.
Their parting is tense. "Don't forget to be a good boy," she tells him, all love. "I hate you," George replies. The boy, who is bi-racial and never knew his father, is scared by the situation and terrified to be on his own.
Midway into his journey, he jumps off the train to make his way back to London on foot. He ends up in a series of mini-adventures that play out like chapters in a Charles Dickens novel.
Director McQueen efficiently identifies beauty even in the darkest of spaces, whether in a subway station where people are taking cover from air raids, or in the neighborhoods destroyed by bombs. For McQueen, the diversity of London is a constant issue in the film as is the prevalence of racism. "Blitz" is a story of struggle and never giving up in the face of imminent doom.
Available at: https://www.detroitnews.com/story/entertainment/movies/2024/11/21/blitz-review-in-wartime-london-afamilys-search-for-sanity/76474861007/ Access at: 27 Nov. 2024. Adapted.