{"id":779,"date":"2026-05-27T06:36:22","date_gmt":"2026-05-27T06:36:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/relocationobserver.com\/?p=779"},"modified":"2026-05-27T06:36:22","modified_gmt":"2026-05-27T06:36:22","slug":"pressure-review-andrew-scott-and-brendan-fraser-go-toe-to-toe-in-an-absorbing-tale-of-how-the-weather-won-the-war","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/relocationobserver.com\/?p=779","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Pressure\u2019 Review: Andrew Scott and Brendan Fraser Go Toe-to-Toe in an Absorbing Tale of How the Weather Won the War"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n\tThe British obsession with the weather goes from an easily mocked national quirk to a world-beating point of pride in \u201cPressure,\u201d a handsome, efficient WWII drama that doesn\u2019t go quite so far as to say a weatherman won the war, but wouldn\u2019t mind one bit if that\u2019s what you came away believing. The \u201cweatherman,\u201d in fact, is Captain James Stagg, the leading Scottish meteorologist who was appointed the Chief Meteorological Officer for Operation Overlord, reporting to General Dwight D. Eisenhower in determining just what day to make D-Day. If that sounds like less than riveting drama, you underestimate both the eternally unpredictable vagaries of the English summer, and the formidable magnetism of one Andrew Scott as Stagg, staunchly arguing with Brendan Fraser\u2018s Eisenhower about the rain as if thousands of lives depend on it \u2014 because, this time, they do.<\/p>\n

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\n\tThough the marketing for \u201cPressure\u201d \u2014 opening wide Stateside this Friday, somewhat surprisingly months ahead of its U.K. bow \u2014 is emphasizing the epic scale of its pretty curtailed D-Day dramatization, Anthony Maras\u2018 film is mostly a chamber piece, set predominantly in the Allied military headquarters where the operation was planned down to the wire, its drama largely contained in tense verbal conflicts over desks and maps and bulletin boards. If, while watching it, you think it would work well on stage, that\u2019s because it already has: Actor-playwright David Haig\u2019s play of the same title was a West End success in 2014, but was perhaps too clipped, too British or too niche to transfer to Broadway.<\/p>\n

\n\tIt works well on screen too, however, in part because Australian helmer Maras (\u201cHotel Mumbai\u201d) and Haig \u2014 who co-write the adaptation \u2014 don\u2019t strain too hard to open it up. Instead, they honor the ironic scope and stakes of the original piece, in which the fate of the free world rests on environmental minutiae that no human can control, and chart the varying ways in which different parties respond to that powerlessness. (Much like the men on screen, they also keep a strict eye on the clock: Here\u2019s a rare period war drama that comes in at a businesslike 100 minutes.) <\/p>\n

\n\tWhen Stagg\u2019s calculations lead him to conclude that an almighty storm is set to break on June 5, 1944 \u2014 the day originally earmarked for the Normandy landings \u2014 after a long period of balmy calm, potentially scuppering the entire vast project, his simple but urgent advice is to wait a day. Raring to go, all the top military brass, including the agitated Eisenhower and his supercilious British counterpart General Bernard Montgomery (Damian Lewis), act as though the rational, needfully single-minded man of science has personally betrayed the mission. <\/p>\n

\n\tThere\u2019s a dry strain of comedy in watching these mighty men of war not just thwarted by a simple weather report, but reduced to sputtering anger by it: Though everything in \u201cPressure\u201d from the serious-minded ensemble work to Jamie D. Ramsay\u2019s discreetly varnished lensing to another urgently thrumming score by Volker Bertelmann (\u201cAll Quiet on the Western Front\u201d) looks to ennoble the events playing out on screen, the film is lifted by its contrasting streak of absurdity.<\/p>\n

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\n\tIt doesn\u2019t help matters that Stagg\u2019s American colleague, the less qualified meteorologist Irving Crick (a perfectly slick, slippery Chris Messina) is willing to selectively manipulate the charts to tell his superiors exactly what they want to hear, facts and stats be damned. Though set more than 80 years ago, \u201cPressure\u201d quite sharply chimes in with the post-truth political climate of the Trump era, where expertise is distrusted by default, and leadership means unquestioned authority.<\/p>\n

\n\tNot that Eisenhower, to be fair, is presented here as quite such a tyrant. Fraser\u2019s entertainingly broad, blustery performance still permits some glimpses of humility and uncertainty in the future President, as even his brick-built shoulders buckle under the, well, pressure of the moment. A warmly level-headed presence in the somewhat thankless role of his personal secretary Kay Summersby, Kerry Condon is tasked with an awful lot of machismo-countering and ego-wrangling.<\/p>\n

\n\tStill, the film belongs to the ever-reliable Scott, who commendably doesn\u2019t take the easily sympathetic route with the anxious, uptight Stagg, playing him with a suitably dour chill to match his grim forecast \u2014 but also a stern, stoic integrity that you\u2019d trust with your life. There\u2019s no joy in raining on this particular parade: Scott, and in turn \u201cPressure,\u201d make an unfashionable but timely stand for planning, listening and taking the sensible option.<\/p>\n

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\t\t\u2018Pressure\u2019 Review: Andrew Scott and Brendan Fraser Go Toe-to-Toe in an Absorbing Tale of How the Weather Won the War<\/p>\n<\/h2>\n

\n

\t\tReviewed at Working Title screening room, London, May 7, 2026. MPA Rating: PG-13. Running time: 100 MIN.<\/p>\n<\/h2>\n

    \n
  • \nProduction:<\/strong>
    \n(U.K.-France) A Focus Features release of a Studiocanal presentation of a Working Title production. (World sales: Studiocanal, London.) Producers: Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Cass Marks, Lucas Webb. Executive producers: Anna Marsh, Ron Halpern, Joe Naftalin, Anthony Maras, Angela Moneke, Sheeraz Shah.\t\t\t<\/li>\n
  • \nCrew:<\/strong>
    \nDirector, editor: Anthony Maras. Screenplay: Maras, David Haig, based on Haig’s stage play. Camera: Jamie D. Ramsay. Music: Volker Bertelmann.\t\t\t<\/li>\n
  • \nWith:<\/strong>
    \nAndrew Scott, Brendan Fraser, Kerry Condon, Chris Messina, Damian Lewis, Tamsin Topolski. (English dialogue) \t\t\t<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Starring Andrew Scott, Brendan Fraser, Kerry Condon and Damian Lewis, Anthony Maras’ absorbing ‘Pressure’ tackles D-Day from a scientific standpoint.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":778,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[790,791,792,793,794,795],"class_list":["post-779","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-film","tag-andrew-scott","tag-anthony-maras","tag-brendan-fraser","tag-damian-lewis","tag-kerry-condon","tag-pressure"],"yoast_head":"\n\u2018Pressure\u2019 Review: Andrew Scott and Brendan Fraser Go Toe-to-Toe in an Absorbing Tale of How the Weather Won the War - Relocation Observer<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/relocationobserver.com\/?p=779\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"\u2018Pressure\u2019 Review: Andrew Scott and Brendan Fraser Go Toe-to-Toe in an Absorbing Tale of How the Weather Won the War - 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