Movie Review Blitz, diluted plot with Saoirse Ronan

Blitz begins with unconventional intentions, which ultimately only brush the surface of the narrative. The protagonist Rita (Saoirse Ronan) must find her son George (Elliott Heffernan), who was evacuated during the London bombings in 1940-41, when the capital was struck almost nightly. 

The explosions ravaging the city fail to make this ambitious film sensational in its attempt to tell an epic story. Blitz oversimplifies the blend of personal and social narratives, and George's story is told carelessly, diluted with journeys stumbling through rubble, much like his mother Rita's tale. 

What emerges is a sterile portrayal of World War II, where themes like overcoming racial hostilities become diluted: George is mixed-race, but in a wartime context, this certainly isn't one of the primary challenges to overcome. 

The Diluted Plot of Blitz 

George falls victim to a gang of thieves, led by Albert (Stephen Graham), who needs someone small enough to enter bombed sites and steal abandoned goods. Rita works at a munitions factory, fails to distract herself during a childless evening at a pub, and spends time with her neighbor Jack (Harris Dickinson), who's in love with her. She volunteers at a shelter and eventually discovers her son's disappearance. Everything appears too artificially fluid to fit within a war context, which other films have portrayed with greater pathos. Consider the recent film Lee with Kate Winslet, or - going back further - Dunkirk. 

Director Steve McQueen, who previously tracked characters through their tribulations in films like *12 Years a Slave* and *Shame*, now seems to lose his way among London's burning streets, diluting the plot merely to reach its conclusion. His desire to showcase the abundance of meticulously crafted special effects, enhanced by Yorick Le Saux's saturated cinematography (known for *Wasp Network* and *Personal Shopper*), is evident. Yet this isn't enough to convey the pain of bomb wounds, which fails to emerge even in Saoirse Ronan's engaging face.

A film worth watching for its formal reconstruction of war's chaos, without dwelling too deeply on the protagonists' struggles.

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