With the deliciously enticing combination of one of Britain’s most well-regarded directors in McQueen, working for the first time with one of the greatest talents of her generation in Saoirse Ronan, setting the stage for Blitz, the insane potential gears audiences up for a war film of the ages. Marking McQueen’s return to feature filmmaking for the first time in almost seven years, Blitz tells the story of Londoners during the war, specifically one mother whose decision to evacuate her child leads him on a quest across the city.
Offensively nondescript on every imaginable level, Blitz’s entire conception appears haphazardly pieced together by countless genre flicks, only diluted to a fraction of their potency in such an overbloated and stuffy picture. Lacking any personality of its own, with nothing uniquely interesting - or even simply interesting - to say, we find ourselves stranded with characters talking as broadly as possible and representing traits like ‘good’ and ‘evil’ conveyed via stereotypes, forced into a stuffy template and told in the most banally uninspired manner. Structured as a ‘journey home’ narrative, complete with perfunctory flashbacks that immediately hinder any momentum, Blitz positions its young protagonist as a Dorothy-esque figure eager to discover the way home. Still, it unfolds without recognising the gold it could tap into. Sadly, the template is simply the start of Blitz’s many issues.
Even directionally, McQueen seems to be coasting by. Gone is the electrifying emotional charge of 12 Years A Slave, the human complexity of Shame and the gripping intensity of Widows, replaced with a sort of autopilot typically reserved for a filmmaker with nothing left to say, do, or prove. McQueen is nothing of the sort, still so relatively early on in his career, and the ideas scratching away in Blitz are evidence of that, - but the entire project feels so passionless in execution. Even Hans Zimmer’s score, usually a guarantee for a rousing cinematic experience, is phoned-in at best, and utterly dreary at worst. Take, for instance, the film’s climatic scene: the moment bombs rain down on London should have been the film's crowning moment, but feels abruptly abandoned before the tension has come to materialise, as if they realise midway through that the audience's emotional investment to make it worthwhile is non-existent. Doing it a disservice further, the film’s digital sheen is entirely distracting, polished to remove a grub that would have enriched the film’s realism significantly.
While the best is typically expected of Saoirse Ronan, her work here is surprisingly pedestrian. Impeded by the screenplay's inability to build and imbue its characters with a humanity that would have enriched our relationship with them, the truth is that Ronan is simply not doing anything interesting with the little she is granted by the script. Beyond a lovely vocal performance that adds another string to the actresses' bow, there's nothing remotely memorable about her work here, unable to leave a lasting impression. Even more shortchanged is Harris Dickinson, whose role feels like such an afterthought that his entire scenes could be cut with no impact on the actual narrative. A talent like his should not be wasted, particularly by a director who has previously helmed - and succeeded with - projects boasting stacked ensembles. It would be remiss to fail to mention Stephen Graham and Kathy Burke, who deliver two of the most painfully garish and shockingly bad performances of the lot, as if ripped from a page of a Sweeney Todd knockoff.
An embarrassing misfire for all involved, no more so than the pair whose first-time collaboration should have ensured total glory, Steve McQueen’s Blitz is a bomb not even a talent like Saoirse Ronan can salvage. Blitz is a woefully underwhelming feat whose aversion to risk and refusal to be creative results in the most sluggish attempt at a sub-genre so in need of rejuvenation, and while the future of this type of film should not be left in one person’s hands, if not even our most promising talent can find success within it, does it really have a future? Even despite the immense anticipation behind it, Blitz will go down as one of the most crushing disappointments in recent film memory.