Not a bad movie but I definitely expected more from it. The story was kind of…bland. This could have been a highly emotional film but for some reason it did not do anything for me in that department.

What a farse. I don't mind the racism angle at all in principle, as that was at the heart of much of the suffering through WWII, however it lacked any nuance whatsoever, with the racist moments the only moments of any narrative significance, rather than there being anything meaningful evoked through the actual journey the boy went on in the broader context of the war. Further, every good character other than the mother was black and every bad character was white. But it failed on many more ways than that... The blitz was a footnote, the boy was emotionless, Saoirse was criminally under used, half the film was spent showing dances and parties, and was therefore completely tonally inconsistent, and ultimately just felt utterly lifeless. I really don't know how the director failed this so badly.

Saoirse Ronan is such a respectable lady. In my opinion, this is the most grown-up role she has played so far. She’s amazing in this movie. The movie itself is beautifully made. Nice cinematography and costume designs make it a treat to watch.

Shockingly basic and simplistic, especially from an acclaimed auteur like Steve McQueen, someone who hasn’t sheered away from digging to deep and uncomfortable places in the past. In a sense this feels like his big mainstream effort, it’s this prestige, Spielbergian war drama that’s easily palatable for the masses. It constantly hints at interesting directions (e.g. the position of women or blacks during this time period), but ultimately it makes all of these annoying Oscar baity choices that just turn me off as a viewer. The characters remain quite underdeveloped throughout, we don’t spend enough time with the mother and son to care about that relationship (which is kinda the point of the movie) and the directing can be awfully cheesy at points (the ‘we have to unite as people’ speech, the kids on top of the train, the cartoony overacting by some of the adults, Saoirse Ronan throwing away her work gear dramatically while she walks to the camera to look for her son, all the singing and party scenes which only feel like they’re in there to artificially lighten the mood). Still, besides some of my issues with the blocking and staging, the rest of the filmmaking is probably it’s biggest selling point. The set and costume design are fantastic, some of the cinematography is exceptionally well done (especially all of the big scale money shots during the third act) and there’s great attention to detail to the sound design. It’s not enough to make the end result stand out in this saturated genre, but it does give me hope that McQueen could potentially make a great crowdpleaser with better material in the future. 4/10

The best thing about this movie is the production design. And I liked the score, surprisingly, as I was expecting Hans to be on autopilot. The movie turned into Oliver Twist too oftenly. And the kid's acting was not good enough to carry the movie. Look up the french film "Forbidden Games" to see how a WWII movie starring kids is done. And the "can't we all just get along" moments hit like a hammer to the head.