Pressure review – Andrew Scott and Brendan Fraser can’t save lower-tier D-day drama

I n a world of increasingly segmented audiences, the new movie Pressure cleverly brings together two adjacent demographics: weather dads and history dads. Those designations are honorifics, not gender-essentialist; spiritually dad-curious people of all ages (but, let’s be real: mostly over 50) may be interested in a behind-the-scenes story set in the last few days leading up to the allied invasion of Normandy in June 1944. Because this is the largest-scale seaborne invasion ever mounted, weather

To put it in contemporary terms, this is essentially a movie about Dwight Eisenhower (Brendan Fraser) nervously refreshing his weather app to see if he needs to change his upcoming plans. The weather app is played by Andrew Scott. Scott’s actual character is James Stagg, a somewhat brusque and chilly Scotsman brought in to the D-day planning as the operation’s chief meteorological officer. Stagg quickly clashes with the American Irving Krick (Chris Messina), who knows that D-day is crucial and time is of the essence – and is therefore bullish about (selectively) using past data to “predict” that the storms will quickly pass. Stagg’s analysis is far less optimistic. Anyone who has held tickets to a forecast-dependent outdoor concert will relate. To the intriguingly discordant ensemble of Scott, Fraser and Messina, Pressure adds the always-welcome Kerry Condon as Kay Summersby, who served as Eisenhower’s secretary during the war. (All of the film’s major characters are real people.) “Men are too fond of that word,” she notes when someone throws around the term “genius”. At first, this seems like a streak of mild cheek in the screenplay, co-written by director Anthony Maras. “Did you know that weathermen are traditionally boring?” Stagg is dryly asked at one point. He concedes that possibility while noting that the weather itself could not possibly be described that way. This distinction is more correct than the movie would care to admit.

Key points

• To put it in contemporary terms, this is essentially a movie about Dwight Eisenhower (Brendan Fraser) nervously refreshing his weather app to see if he needs to change his upcoming plans.
• The weather app is played by Andrew Scott.
• Scott’s actual character is James Stagg, a somewhat brusque and chilly Scotsman brought in to the D-day planning as the operation’s chief meteorological officer.
• Stagg quickly clashes with the American Irving Krick (Chris Messina), who knows that D-day is crucial and time is of the essence – and is therefore bullish about (selectively) using past data to “p…
• Stagg’s analysis is far less optimistic.