Pressure (2026): A Review

PRESSURE (2026)

"You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows". So rapped Bob Dylan in Subterranean Homesick Blues. That might be true. However, you did need a weatherman to know whether or not to invade Europe. Pressure, based on the stage play of the same name, attempts to wring drama out of the weatherman who forecast conditions on D-Day. Veering close to parody, Pressure manages to hold on. 

England, 1944. Group Captain James Stagg (Andrew Scott) has been hurriedly summoned to Southwick House. Here, Supreme Allied Commander Dwight Eisenhower (Brendan Fraser) informs Stagg of his important task. Stagg is the preeminent meteorologist in Britain, a genius according to Churchill (or so Ike tells others). Stagg, married with a child on the way, is a prickly Scotsman. He finds the joint British/American team far too jolly for their important task. He quickly takes a dislike to his American counterpart, Colonel Irving Krick (Chris Messina). 

Krick and Ike have been together for years. Krick has accurately predicted the weather at every major battle in the African campaign. Krick predicts that the planned date of June 5, 1944, will be sunny and bright. Stagg scoffs and is adamant about how wrong Krick is. Krick has been lucky, Stagg insists. Historical patterns will not hold. He is dead set that June 5 will have massive storms raging across Europe and insists on postponing the planned Normandy invasion.

Krick is dismissive. Field Marshall Bernard Montgomery (Damien Lewis) is downright enraged. Monty demands that the invasion go ahead on schedule come literal hell or high water. "IF D-DAY IS CANCELLED, WE WILL LOSE THIS WAR!" Monty bellows when not throwing shade at Ike for him technically having no battlefield experience. Krick and Monty, as well as the military at Southwick, say to go. Stagg is adamant that it is a No. Ike, haunted by a dress rehearsal of the invasion that went disastrously wrong, must make a choice.

To everyone's surprise, he decides to wait. Stagg has his own dramas involving his wife, their unborn baby and Germans bombing hospitals. In all this, Ike's loyal Girl Friday Kay Summersby (Kerry Condon) attempts to keep everyone and everything in order. Stagg, already distracted by personal matters, is ultimately proven right. He earns the respect of everyone. In turn, Stagg becomes more cooperative with others. Together, he and Krick find a brief window where the invasion can safely take place sooner rather than later. With that, D-Day commences on June 6, 1944.

While I have yet to see The Six Triple Eight, I think that particular film got a lot of online mocking due to its subject matter. I figure that, despite its good intentions, The Six Triple Eight left some people with the vague suggestion that sorting mail was somehow equivalent to landing on Omaha Beach. That suggestion of "postal workers won World War II" became an unfortunate punchline. It also suggested that filmmakers were scraping to find hereto "untold stories" of the Second World War. In a similar vein, Pressure, I think, has been diminished by the dismissive "the weatherman won World War II" tagline. Again, I think there are many stories left to tell of courage during one of humanity's darkest hours. Whether audiences will embrace stories of courageous postal workers or weathermen, let alone whether such stories merit such lavish praise and productions remains to be seen. 

Pressure, with its pun of meteorological and emotional pressure, initially invites the viewer to mock it. The overall production does not help. Volker Bertelmann's score continuously attempts to push how dramatic everything is supposed to be. Bertelmann is no stranger to scoring war music, having won an Oscar for the 2022 version of All Quiet on the Western Front. I suppose that his Pressure score is better than the All Quiet on the Western Front score. At least with Pressure, he is not dry humping the same three notes for the entire film like he did for All Quiet on the Western Front. Yet, I digress. 

David Haig adapts his play with director Anthony Maras. Again, I have never seen the play version of Pressure. I figure, however, that it would play better than it does on film. A play would keep things to fewer locations. A film would let the story open up. In terms of locations, it does. In terms of characters and performances, it does not.

Andrew Scott is pretty remote as Stagg. I suppose that might be how the character is. However, because there is something distant in Scott's performance, one does not feel much when he faces personal crisis. The relationship with his wife would be ripe with drama. Unfortunately, Pressure uses them almost as if they were built to create drama. We see her heavily pregnant and then we see her at the end. Pressure does not go in to making Stagg a whole person. Instead, he is just there to look down on everyone except Ike, who towers over him.

As a side note, Pressure does give Andrew Scott a chance to issue a height joke. When he first arrives, Krick seems pretty dismissive of him. "I thought you'd be older," I think he says. "I thought you'd be taller" is Stagg's curt reply. Andrew Scott is 5'8" and Chris Messina is 5'7". 

Try as Pressure does, one never truly feels like these are people. I did not sense a change in Stagg's manner even when the film suggested it. I also had trouble accepting that Krick and his men would be happily dancing a jitterbug while working on their weather predictions. Stagg seems appalled at the others dancing to Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy. Part of me thinks that yes, people working under extreme pressure should let off a little steam. Part of me also wonders if such a thing would happen so often. An exchange between Stagg and Krick about how the former had never seen (or apparently even heard of) Gone with the Wind did not work either. It seemed more for forced drama than for realism.

The performances were respectable though not great. Kerry Condon is the standout as Kay Summersby.  One can give Pressure some credit in that it does not suggest any liaison between Eisenhower and Summersby. She plays Summersby as sensible, loyal and trustworthy. Kay Summersby is the cool, rational figure able to stand up and stand for Eisenhower and Stagg. I would also say that Chris Messina did a good job as Irving Krick. He plays him as someone confident in his abilities and sure of himself. When he is proven wrong, he at least makes Krick's bitterness relatable. 

Andrew Scott was not particularly good as Group Captain James Stagg. His scenes of domesticity looked forced. His interplay with others looked equally forced. Again, that might be the character. However, I would think that Pressure would make the case for why we should care for and about this man. It did not.

Brendan Fraser did his best as General Eisenhower. I would say that he is frankly too big physically to play Ike. He did not sound like Eisenhower. He tried to look like Ike. In fairness, he did have good moments, such as when he told Montgomery to never undermine him again in front of the men. However, one struggles with Ike flying off the handle at another meeting.

Damien Lewis was hilarious as the future Viscount Montgomery. He chewed the scenery with naked abandon. As he raged and pontificated, Lewis continuously made Monty look in turns unhinged and theatrical. He might have been. He just did not have to be that way here.

I will say that the actual D-Day invasion scene was well-filmed. I do not think that it will rank among the great battle sequences. However, it worked within the film's story and left a strong impact.

Pressure is good but not great. It has some good performances and some bad ones. Overall, Pressure does not make a good case for why we needed to know about the weatherman who saved the world.

1900-1975

DECISION: C+