Steve McQueen’s latest film “Blitz”, which is currently available on Apple TV+, tries to bring some new and interesting elements into its familiar genre territory. Although it does not always work, the movie often distinguishes itself with a number of striking visual moments to behold, and we get to know and feel how dangerous and desperate things were for many people in London during that dark period in the middle of World War II.

The story, which is mainly set in London at the point not long after Nazi Germany began a massive air bombing on UK in September 1940, starts with the introduction of a young black boy and his devoted mother. As shown from a flashback scene shown later in the film, Rita (Saoirse Ronan) had a Jamaican boyfriend before the war began, but he got deported due to an unfortunate incident not long after she became pregnant, and Rita raised their son Geroge (Elliott Heffernan) for herself while living in her kind father’s house.

However, as London and its citizens get more threatened by the air bombing by Nazi Germany, which is incidentally known as “the Blitz”, Rita becomes quite concerned about George’s safety, especially after they and many others in their neighborhood go through another nervous time in an underground shelter. Although she does not want to be separated from her son at all, Rita eventually decides to send away her son to somewhere outside London, and George is naturally not so happy about that.

Not long after he is separated from his mother at a train station and then the train leaves for where he is supposed to stay, George impulsively decides to go back to his mother. He jumps off the train when nobody is paying attention to him, and that is the beginning of his bumpy journey to London, during which he comes across a number of various figures reminiscent of Charles Dickens novels. While there are the three young boys also running away for their own personal reason, there is also a compassionate black air raid warden who tries to help George as much as possible, and the movie certainly makes some point on racism during several key scenes of theirs in the middle of the story.

Meanwhile, Rita continues to work in a factory full of many other female workers as usual, and there is a lovely moment when she demonstrates a bit of her singing in front of many people as a part of the special event held inside the factory. Without her son, she can spend more time outside along with her co-workers, but she still misses her son nonetheless, and she certainly becomes furious when she is belatedly notified that her son is gone missing.

Frequently alternating between its two main characters’ respective journeys, the movie shows us more of the fear and devastation in London during that time. In one particularly impressive scene, the camera fluidly moves around lots of people having a fun and exciting night at a popular nightclub, and we soon find ourselves more immersed in this lively moment, but then something quite devastating happens (This did occur in London during early 1941, by the way). As trying to reach to his neighborhood in London, George comes to experience several air bombings, and there is a grandly horrific scene where he desperately tries to survive as running amid lots of bombings and burning buildings.

It is unfortunate that McQueen’s screenplay is sometimes heavy-handed during several obligatory dramatic moments, and it also falters at times in case of characterization. In contrast to Rita and George, many other characters in the story are more or less than broad caricatures without much human depth, and they simply come and then go as the movie busily pushes its two main characters along their respective narrative lines.

Nevertheless, the movie has enough strong elements to observe and appreciate thanks to the commendable efforts from McQueen and his crew members. The production design by Adam Stockhausen did a superb job of bringing vivid period details to the screen in addition to conveying to us the immense scale of destruction in London during that period, and cinematographer Yorick Le Saux provides a bunch of visceral scenes packed with a considerable amount intensity and verisimilitude. The score by Hans Zimmer is relatively more understated compared to his recent works including his Oscar-winning score for “Dune” (2021), and its overall grim mood is sometimes lightened up by the source music provided by Nicholas Britell.

Most of all, the movie is held together well by the two excellent performers at the center. While Saoirse Ronan is surely more prominent, she often steps aside for young performer Elliott Heffernan, and Heffernan gives one of the most impressive child performances of this year. Around these two good performers, McQueen assembles a number of notable performers including Harris Dickinson, Benjamin Clementine, Kathy Burke, Paul Weller, and Stephen Graham, and they fill their respective supporting parts as much as required.

Overall, “Blitz” feels like a lesser work compared to McQueen’s better one including Oscar-winning film “12 Years a Slave” (2013), but it is still an engaging World War II film with an interesting narrative perspective. In my humble opinion, it would serve its story and characters better if it were a TV miniseries, but it admirably succeeds to some degree, so I recommend you to give it a chance someday.