Movie review: D-Day drama ‘Pressure’ makes the weather worth watching – The Spokesman-Review

Color Scheme
Subscriber Actions
Staff Options
Connect With Us
Support Local Journalism
‘Pressure’
3.5 stars (out of 4)
Credits: Directed by Anthony Maras, starring Brendan Fraser, Andrew Schott, Kerry Condon, Damian Lewis, Henry Ashton and Chris Messina.
Rating/runtime: PG-13 for war violence, bloody images, some strong language, and smoking; 100 minutes.
How to watch: In theaters Friday.
The premise of “Pressure,” the new World War II movie from director Anthony Maras and writer David Haig, is a hyperfocused look at the days leading up to D-Day with a special focus on the meteorologists. It’s a one-setting thriller set in the pressure cooker of General Dwight D. Eisenhower’s war room at an English country estate that works backwards from the 1961 Eisenhower quip to JFK that attributed his success in Normandy to the Allies having “better meteorologists than the Germans.”
If you’re skeptical about how exciting a movie about the weather on D-Day might be, Maras and Haig take that as a creative challenge, an argumentative stance from which to start. For the next hour and 40 minutes, Maras and co-writer Haig, who also wrote the 2014 play from which the film is adapted, explain to us exactly how important the meteorologists of D-Day were, starting from the high-stakes context of the disastrous D-Day rehearsal Exercise Tiger.
With the weather app at our fingertips these days, it can be hard to imagine just how difficult it was to forecast the weather in the 1940s, especially in Northern Europe. That was the predicament facing Eisenhower (Brendan Fraser) just 72 hours before the planned D-Day launch of June 5, 1944. But we know that D-Day happened on June 6, so the arrival at that date is part of the film’s narrative intrigue.
After a devastating glimpse of Exercise Tiger, red blood mixing with blue ocean waves and white sandy beaches, we’re quickly introduced to our protagonist, Group Captain Chief Meteorologist James Stagg (Andrew Scott), in his cozy home with his pregnant wife before he’s swept into critical war planning.
He’s stern, terse and no-nonsense; Stagg is the kind of person who wants to be correct more than he wants to be liked, and he insists on a careful collection of live data, using weather balloons, phone calls and mathematical charting. His foil is Colonel Irving Krick (Chris Messina), a charming American meteorologist and Eisenhower’s chosen weatherman, a yes-man who relies on selectively chosen historical data, and a persuasive speaker whose approach rankles the fastidious Stagg. Eisenhower instructs the two men to come to an agreement, and “Pressure” follows the ups and downs of their working relationship over the course of several days.
But “Pressure” is a truly two-hander between Scott and Fraser as Stagg and Eisenhower. Stagg and his firm belief that a storm on June 5 will make conditions less than ideal is the immovable object against which Eisenhower rages, while he simultaneously attempts to placate a phalanx of military personnel who all have different needs. The troops are requisitioned, the destroyers in place, the full moon just right, the secrecy of the invasion delicate. The script — and Fraser’s explosive performance — underline the immense, well, pressure the general is under while balancing every precarious element of this enormous mission.
Maras, who is known for another terrific one-setting thriller based on a true story, “Hotel Mumbai,” both directs and edits, and his films are put together like precision clockwork, propulsive and relentless, the pulse-pounding pace underlined by Volker Bertelmann’s score. “Pressure” is skillfully directed, sweeping us into this world with a kind of addictive immediacy, and is also beautifully shot by cinematographer Jamie Ramsay. Maras and Ramsay make the wise choice to shoot the film with richly saturated color instead of the usual grayish, desaturated look often assigned to period pieces set in this era. It’s not gritty and harsh, but rather stunning and lovely, an eerie contrast to the terror and bloodshed of the day itself.
While Fraser delivers an external performance as the tough American general, Scott offers a restrained depiction of the repressed and methodical Stagg. But when he finally bursts with a cathartic eleventh hour speech about the inaccuracy of Krick’s historical forecast, based on past war trauma, Eisenhower listens. Scott is so good at this kind of acting, processing every emotion internally, but allowing just enough to show to let the audience into his character’s emotional state. It’s wildly compelling to watch.
In a quiet conversation with Eisenhower’s close confidant and aide, Kay Summersby (Kerry Condon), she jokes that weathermen are boring. Stagg reminds her that the weather itself isn’t though. Weather feeds us, it can destroy us — it rules our existence, he says. “People ask, ‘when will the wind stop blowing?’ No one ever asks, ‘why does the wind blow? What is the wind?’,” revealing himself as a sort of philosophical poet of the weather. His forecast was the crucial edge in D-Day, and the volatility of the weather is increasingly relevant in our lives, especially with our changing climate. Boring? Never. Thrilling and history-making? Indeed. Maras and Haig easily rise to the challenge to make the weather worth watching.
Local journalism is essential.
Give directly to The Spokesman-Review’s Northwest Passages community forums series — which helps to offset the costs of several reporter and editor positions at the newspaper — by using the easy options below. Gifts processed in this system are tax deductible.
Meet Jesse Tinsley. As a certified drone pilot, this veteran Spokesman-Review photographer often can be seen capturing beautiful aerial photographs of our region. Sometimes though, the job requires getting down with the dogs.
Jim Meehan is no stranger to Zag Nation. As the lead writer covering the Gonzaga men’s basketball team, he tells the stories behind the game and gets fans a bit closer to their favorite players.
There is no artist in Spokane like Molly Quinn. Her whimsical style is instantly recognizable to readers of The Spokesman-Review. She has painted gorgeous illustrations that instantly elevate the journalism accompanying it. She brings to life the stories that defy photography. She makes our pages better.
Spokesman-Review editor Rob Curley loves to talk with people and learn about their lives, whether it's a best-selling author or a stranger he meets downtown on his walk to lunch. It's that inquisitive nature combined with a playful sense of storytelling that helps make our newspaper different than most.
Get the day’s top entertainment headlines delivered to your inbox Thursday afternoons.
Dignified Workday is a rapidly growing low-barrier employment program in Spokane that is reshaping how the community supports individuals experiencing homelessness and instability.
Follow Us
Support Local Journalism
Subscribe
Help
User
Advertising
More
Contact Us
© Copyright 2026, The Spokesman-Review | Community Guidelines | Terms of Service | Privacy Policy | Copyright Policy

source