PRESSURE – Review by T.J. Callahan
Pressure: Weathering Heights
Pressure is the untold true story of D-Day or how a weather forecast changed the world.
It’s 72 hours until the planned invasion of the beaches of Normandy, France is set to begin. The Allied forces are under Pressure to carry out the mission before their element of surprise is lost. But they didn’t know whether the weather would cooperate. Captain James Stagg, a meteorologist recommended by Winston Churchill, is brought in to advise General Eisenhower and immediately butts heads with Ike’s current forecaster Colonel Irving Krick.
Stagg proposes postponing the operation when he discovers an intense low Pressure system rolling in from the Atlantic heading straight for the English Channel. This raises Eisenhower’s blood Pressure as he begins to question whether to believe Stagg’s weather report amid Pressure from the British to continue with the original plan.
How is it there are still interesting and chilling stories from WW II that haven’t been made into movies yet? Pressure centers more on the high-stakes decision of when to launch the D-Day invasion rather than any actual fighting. With the fate of the war resting on two men arguing about the weather, the bulk of the film takes place in the war room rather than at war. Brendan Fraser is a beefier, but, if you squint, believable Dwight Eisenhower. Andrew Scott is a quietly serious and confident Captain Stagg. Chris Messina plays weather rival Colonel Krick and Kerry Coon is the General’s flirty aide and confidant.
Writer/Director Anthony Maras (Hotel Mumbai) gives us a thrilling depiction of the days leading up to the largest seaborne invasion force in history, but with the core of the story taking place over just 3 days, Maras must pad the account to get enough for an hour and forty minute feature length film. In between the tension there’s soldiers singing and dancing, a side story about Stagg’s pregnant wife and lots of pompous pontificating. Still, Pressure hits all the right points. My husband Ricky gives the drama two 👀s open and it rises to a 6.5 out of 10 on the TeejFlixometer.
