Anthony Maras’ “Pressure” is predicated on a gap in two warring weather systems during the final hours of preparation for D-Day; one that, if threaded, might allow the Allies a chance to forestall disaster on the Beaches of Normandy and land the first in a series of punches against the Third Reich, functionally ending World War 2. The film, a debate-fueled drama centered around the weather forecast for the day in question, a report that would functionally determine the future of the war, and further on, the world, is a little one in the grand genre of World War 2 cinema, yet one that itself fills a gap in one of the most studied and fascinating stories in human history. Every few years, we get a movie like this: think “Nuremberg,” “The Imitation Game,” “Hacksaw Ridge,” “Anthropoid” or “The Zookeeper’s Wife;” films that find stories that lurk at the fringes of such a great conflict and shed some light onto hidden details and people that might have otherwise gone forgotten. There’s a comfort to these types of movies, an assurance of great actors speaking in grand rooms in military dress, debating the fate of the world in a manner that speaks to the grandeur of the moment yet feels safe in its grandiosity. They debate the rise of Hitler and the Nazis and credibly rage against the ramifications of failure in the face of overwhelming devastation; yet for the audience, who seemingly know a thing or two about history, the threat is a phantom one. We know that D-Day was successful, and we know that the Allies ultimately won the war. So, especially for a film like “Pressure,” while there is no grand rug to pull on the audience when the destination is predetermined, that does not make the journey any less quaint and warm, like a movie best watched with family on a quiet Sunday night. “Pressure” is certainly a film that wields history with reverence and stature without taking any large artistic swings. It is in the performances, though, where the movie finds its idiosyncratic charm; with actors finding wrinkles in the stalwart figures of history that, whether historically accurate or not, showcase a prickly complexity that allows the names stamped into monuments to feel that much more vital and alive.
“Pressure” opens in the final days before D-Day. General Dwight D. Eisenhower (Brendan Fraser) is putting the last few pieces together for the largest aquatic invasion in military history. There’s just one wrinkle. While the supply lines and ships and men can be coordinated, the weather is a tricky customer, and the Allies need clear skies to achieve this miracle. Eisenhower has seen firsthand what can happen when these types of grand experiments turn sour, with the accidental massacre of troops during Exercise Tiger, a try-out of sorts for D-Day held a few months before. If they are going to send hundreds of thousands of troops across the English Channel, they have to be sure it’s the right call. Enter Group Captain James Stagg (Andrew Scott), a soft-spoken academic recommended to Eisenhower directly by Winston Churchill. Stagg is an expert in the weather systems of Northern Europe, a volatile and fickle ecosystem that can turn from sunny weather to a maelstrom at a moment’s notice. He is also an expectant father, his wife set to give birth any day; though with the security measures of D-Day, he has no way of contacting her. Against his better wishes, Eisenhower puts Stagg in charge of the forecast for D-Day, desperate for good news in a war that has provided little. While the American meteorologist, Colonel Krick (Chris Messina), utilizes historical charts and predicts smooth seas for June 5, Stagg predicts catastrophe, with waves that would topple the New Orleans-made Higgins Boats, cloud cover that would leave airborne troops dropping blind, and a storm that would flounder the entire invasion. Thus begins the grand debate, with the military leaders, including the British Military Leader Bernard Montgomery (Damian Lewis), on one side and Stagg, along with Eisenhower’s aide Kay Summersby (Kerry Condon), on the other. It’s the most important weather report in the history of the world, the stakes could not be higher for success or failure, and the pressure is building.
“Pressure,” based on the stage play by David Haig, sings when it allows its actors to play off each other; dancing and exploding in rage or conviction in the echoey halls of a British estate. Scott, a legend of theater and television in Britain, is an old pro, riding the line of stoicism and broiling frustration as he tries to be heard amid a hornet’s nest of Generals naysaying his opinions. Yet the most interesting performance in the film is Brendan Fraser’s. The Academy Award-winning actor is finding his niche as a bombastic character actor in the latter part of his career, while bringing with him the same earnest charm that he instilled in his early action-heavy roles. As Eisenhower, Fraser is not scary or threatening, but he is clearly trying to be; a man eager to inflate himself to fit the needs of the moment while remaining terrified that he might not be up to the task. I have no idea if that is the actual assessment of Eisenhower, a man mostly known for winning the war, becoming President and launching a screed on television against the rising military industrial complex. Yet in this sense, authenticity is less important than nuance, and Fraser offers that in spades, his voice hoarse from screaming orders, his eyes perpetually wet as if on the verge of weeping for the soldiers that have been lost and the ones that soon will be. Where does Fraser’s attempt to fill the shoes of a great man from history begin, and the performance of a man trying to BE a great man of history begin or end, I can’t say. Still, I couldn’t help but be captivated by his efforts.
“Pressure” is an hour and forty-minute movie that often feels a bit like taffy being pulled near translucence. The filmmakers work admirably to dramatize an analog weather report that determines the lives of millions with adequate weight, even presenting a version of the D-Day landings that is effective if sadly lacking in the totemic shadow of Spielberg’s own version from “Saving Private Ryan.” But what “Pressure” does well is tell us more about the anonymous people who saved the world, at least for a little while, through a quiet commitment to duty and sacrifice. If there were ever a supercut made of all the World War 2 films from history, some grand art piece that stretched on for days picking and choosing sequences from different films to tell the full story of the conflict, “Pressure” would find itself nudged gently against the flanks of the D-Day landings as foundational context for the story we thought we knew so well. I love that we keep making these little “gap-filler” movies, and rest assured, I’ll be seated for the next one when it inevitably rolls along.
Watch the skies.
You’ll be glad you did.
“Pressure” is playing at Prtyania Theatres Canal Place.
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