Pressure (🌟🌟🌟🌟) is an excellent film. On this beautiful Father’s Day, I can’t help but note that this movie has so much dad energy, it’s insane- and I mean that in the best way possible. Pressure is a World War 2 historical drama about the weather leading up to D-Day. Top to bottom, this is just a well-made, quality film with outstanding acting. Cinema needs films like Pressure, whose purpose is to just tell a damn good story, not win every single award or rake in money. I strongly recommend you give this movie a shot.
Andrew Scott plays Scottish meteorologist James Stagg. Stagg is pulled into the American’s war-room prior to D-Day so as to help Dwight Eisenhower (Brendan Fraser) determine if the weather will allow his troops to deploy to the beaches of Normandy. The whole idea here is that hundreds of thousands of Ally troops are waiting to storm Normandy but Eisenhower is strapped with the critical decision of deciding precisely when to attack. On the one hand, Ike wants the element of surprise & wants to deploy as soon as possible. On the other hand, Ike can’t risk sending his troops into a massive weather storm that might derail the entire operation.
Pressure doesn’t really show much combat & truly refrains from battle sequences- but that’s not a problem whatsoever because there’s layers to the drama here. This felt like a Broadway play at times in that sense. And what I mean by layers is that the big decision Ike has to make is when to deploy his troops but that’s informed by which meteorologist he chooses to believe- which is the other real crux of this story. Scott’s Stagg believes D-Day must be delayed at least a day or two because the weather will be catastrophic. Meanwhile, American meteorologist Irving Krick (Chris Messina) believes the weather will be clear & sunny, therefore no delay is necessary. In other words, Krick & Stagg’s disagreement manifests itself as this story’s primary conflict.
My biggest concern entering this film is I didn’t know if the plot would be thick enough to make things interesting. Would a story about bickering meteorologists leading up to a historical event I think I know a lot about really be worth an hour and a half of my time? The answer is a resounding yes. I found the story to be notably interesting & the dialogue between characters to have both meaning & pace. The movie drives itself forward & there’s enough meat on the bone to keep things engaging.
Every last actor in this film is outstanding. Andrew Scott is the center of the film & it’s a reminder of just how versatile Scott can be- in addition to how easy it is spending time with him. I enjoyed Fraser as Eisenhower. He never overdoes it yet he still has some explosive moments I found entertaining. Fraser is quietly putting together a great string of post-Oscar performances counting this & Rental Family. And Chris Messina absolutely crushes his role- he should definitely get more attention for his performance. That’s all without mentioning Kerry Condon, who is great as one of Ike’s captains.
Pressure is a great addition to Cinema in 2026.