See DUNKIRK For Nolan, But Stay For Harry Styles
Harry Styles’ acting debut in Christopher Nolan’s latest, Dunkirk, has been generating buzz over the last several months, but for all the wrong reasons. Last year the One Direction favorite-turned-solo-artist chopped his signature long, luscious locks for his new role, and the internet lost its mind. Then the first trailer for Dunkirk dared to show the British boy wonder in peril. At that point, the One D die-hards really went up in arms.
Christopher Nolan is known for walking the fine line between complexity and simplicity, blending fantasy and reality in a way that makes even the near destruction of Gotham City seem like speculative fiction rather than comic lore. The director’s choice of subject matter in his follow-up to the epic space odyssey Interstellar gives him surprisingly less creative leeway. History can be expanded upon or examined with a zoomed in lens, which suits Nolan’s style, but his hands are tied in terms of storytelling more so than in the past. The outcome of the Battle of Dunkirk isn’t up for debate, but the journey of these thousands of men is where the film can shine.
This venture into history, along with the casting of Harry Styles, is a journey into new and uncharted territory for Nolan loyalists, but that shouldn’t be a reason to avoid the film this summer. The boy band front man has more depth and deserves attention for more than just his shorter hair and dashing good looks. In a recent interview with Rolling Stone, Styles described the inspiration behind his more mature, debut solo album. The lyrics from his first single “Sign of the Times” were drawn from the story of a young mother who dies right after giving birth. The tracks on this record were drawn from his take on “fundamentals” rather than “politics”, and those fundamentals include equality for all races, sexes, and religions.
Needless to say, Styles has come a long way from the days of his Taylor Swift breakup, and he’s ready to be taken seriously. Eleven years ago, we rolled our collective eyes when Justin Timberlake’s face lined the cluttered poster for the 2006 pitch black teen drug PSA film Alpha Dog. Say what you will about that film’s flaws, the one thing most viewers took away from it was respect for Timberlake’s acting chops. He was 25 years old then, and just a couple of years removed from the breakup of *N Sync. Few people took Timberlake’s jump to acting seriously, but in retrospect he’s been the best part of most films he appears in.
Not every pop star can hack it on the silver screen, but Styles didn’t just have this role fed to him on a silver spoon. Christopher Nolan told the LA Times during CinemaCon that thousands of young actors auditioned for the roles of the soldiers on the beach, but Styles “just had it”.
The story of the Battle of Dunkirk is near and dear to English heritage, so it’s no wonder Styles auditioned and Nolan was willing to give him a chance. In an exit from the fantastical and a sweeping entrance into the historical, one thing can be sure about what Nolan will bring to the table here. He has an uncanny ability to capture the detailed, nuanced motivations and humanity of his characters as individuals, even as he paints them within a more elaborate, grandiose portrait. I, for one, am excited to see him do just that with Harry Styles in Dunkirk.
