By Neil Durham

WORTH A LOOK?: ***1/2

Andrew Scott (All Of Us Strangers) plays meteorologist James Stagg appointed by Churchill to advise Fraser’s Eisenhower when best to launch the Normandy landings to ensure success during World War Two.

• Read on for reasons including how Pressure is a crowdpleaser despite its controversy and Scott’s reputation as 1 of this country’s hottest young acting talents remains undimmed

Pressure is based on a 2014 play by David Haig (Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, Old Vic) and poses some interesting questions not least should forecasters lean into data or previous weather patterns when making calls?

Scott’s Stagg is a data man who goes toe-to-toe with a meteorologist Eisenhower trusts who is introduced to us performing Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy From Company B in the ops room during a moment of frivolity as the straight-laced Stagg hilariously orders the piano to be removed.

The titular Pressure refers not only to the weather and the go or no go decision Stagg must make depending on the weather but also the fact that his very pregnant wife is also due to give birth in London as the intended date for D-Day draws closer.

Kerry Condon (The Banshees Of Inisherin) is Eisenhower’s trusted aide whose nose is initially put out of joint by Stagg but learns to respect him for his expertise even though he doesn’t command the loyalty his US counterpart does.

Brendan Fraser’s Eisenhower is haunted by his previous failures which have cost soldiers’ lives and he does a good job of being exasperated by Stagg’s stubborness before eventually being won over by it.

Damian Lewis (The Goat, Or Who Is Sylvia?, Theatre Royal Haymarket) chews a lot of scenery in very entertaining fashion as as British Army General Sir Bernard Montgomery, the Commander-in-Chief of the 21dst Army Group and overall Commander of Allied Ground Forces for the invasion. chomping at the bit to get boots on the ground.

Director and editor Anthony Maras tries to expand this film’s world to transport it from its stage origins with visuals of men both storming and being slaughtered on beaches.

The film as the stage play did has attracted a little controvery in neglecting the contribution of Norwegian Sverre Petterssen, the man perhaps better known as having D-Day postponed.

We also suspect this film’s release has been timed to prime Scott as a potential Oscar contender for his role as actor Ian Charleson as he steps in at the last minute to play Hamlet at the National shortly before his death while diagnosed with AIDS.

No matter, Pressure is a crowdpleaser of a film despite its controversy and Scott’s reputation as 1 of this country’s hottest young acting talents remains undimmed.

• Main picture via Facebook courtesy Focus Features
• Have you seen Andrew Scott before and what did you think of him? Let us know what you thought in the comments below
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