Pressure
A storm warning and a skilfully understated performance from Andrew Scott fuel this emotional behind-the-scenes drama leading up to D-Day.
High pressure over low pressure fronts: Andrew Scott and Kerry Condon
Image courtesy of StudioCanal.
by JAMES CAMERON-WILSON
One cannot begin to overestimate the significance of the landings on the beaches of Normandy in 1944, the success of which altered the tide of the Second World War. Yet the largest armada ever assembled in military history could have been washed away by the unforgiving weather of northern Europe, even in June. With Bernard ‘Monty’ Montgomery (Damian Lewis) poised to unleash the British forces under his command, and overall commander Dwight D. Eisenhower (Brendan Fraser) just as eager to deploy his US troops, just one man stood in their way. He was the Scottish meteorologist Group Captain James Stagg (Andrew Scott) and he knew that the current calm and sunny conditions could change at the twitch of an isobar. His task was to convince Eisenhower that his (Stagg’s) instincts were not just sound, but crucial to the outcome of the campaign. With the German war machine crushing the life out of Europe, the Allies’ landing was the last-ditch attempt to alter the balance of the conflict. Stagg’s American counterpart, USAAF meteorologist Colonel Irving P. Krick (Chris Messina), held a totally opposite view, based on the evidence of historical charts. So, as the Allies sat around waiting for a green light, a war of words ensued at the Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force in Hampshire, with just 61 hours left before all hell was due to be unleashed.
Co-scripted by the director Anthony Maras and David Haig, adapted from the latter’s stage play (which premiered at Edinburgh in 2014), Pressure is an appropriately titled pressure-cooker human drama. Much as Conclave brought about a renewed interest in the workings of the Vatican, so this riveting verbal discourse should ignite a fascination for all things meteorological. Unfolding like a courtroom thriller, Pressure draws its strength from understatement and the power of the facial close-up. It helps that Maras has marshalled the talents of three outstanding actors: a bullish Brendan Fraser as a surprisingly imposing Eisenhower, Kerry Condon as the latter’s compassionate private secretary (Kay Summersby) and Andrew Scott as the buttoned-up, intractable James Stagg, who is only too aware of the importance of his mission. Scott’s Stagg stands head and shoulders alongside the great characters of war-time cinema, up there with Alec Guinness’s Colonel Nicholson in The Bridge on the River Kwai and George C. Scott’s eponymous Patton. The actor has constantly surprised us by revealing new strings to his accomplished bow, and his nuanced, hesitant disciplinarian here is more than worthy of end-of-the-year awards consideration.
Maras, whose second feature this is (after Hotel Mumbai), has made a number of smart choices, not least in hiring the composer Volker Bertelmann to write a first-rate, propulsive score, a handsome companion piece to Bertelmann’s Oscar-winning work for All Quiet on the Western Front (2022). And, working with a relatively modest budget of $30 million, Maras has been circumspect in his use of battle scenes, reserving the real drama for the scenes between Scott, Fraser and Messina. In wartime, there are so many heroes, but it is seldom that a man who knows his pressure systems can be given his cinematic due.
Cast: Andrew Scott, Brendan Fraser, Kerry Condon, Chris Messina, Damian Lewis, Con O’Neill, Jojo Macari, Alexander Hanson, Tamsin Topolski, Robert Portal.
Dir Anthony Maras, Pro Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Cass Marks and Lucas Webb, Ex Pro Anthony Maras, Screenplay David Haig and Anthony Maras, from the play by David Haig, Ph Jamie D. Ramsay, Pro Des Daniel Taylor, Ed Anthony Maras, Music Volker Bertelmann, Costumes Liza Bracey, Sound Duncan Campbell and Tom Heuzenroeder, Dialect coach William Conacher.
Working Title Films-StudioCanal.
99 mins. UK/USA/France. 2026. US Rel: 29 May 2026. UK Rel: 9 September 2026. Cert. 12A.
