Pressure is a 2026 drama film directed by Anthony Maras, from a screenplay which he co-wrote with David Haig, based on Haig’s own 2014 stage play. The film had its World Premiere on general release in the US in May and was released in the UK on Friday, 11 September.

The future of Europe, and indeed the whole of the free world, hangs in the balance. After almost five long years of war, the allies are poised to invade Normandy. The date is fixed, the troops are trained and ready, air support is on hand, and the navy are all set to deliver their precious cargo to the five target beaches. We just need to check the weather forecast…

That may sound half-way between glib and melodramatic, but I am afraid that this film errs on the side of unduly melodramatic. One would have thought that there would be sufficient levels of tension and drama in that critical moment in history without the need to trowel on extra fictional layers, however it seems that is not the case. Instead, they play around with the main protagonist’s personal life to heighten the moment, and they play with the timing of the bad weather for dramatic effect. Maybe it is just me, but I did not need this – the dramatised history lesson would have been entirely sufficient, indeed utterly fascinating.

Back in 2018, I did see David Haig’s play at the Park Theatre in London, with Haig himself in the leading role of Group Captain James Stagg; in the film the part is played by Andrew Scott. I think the play worked much better than the film, because the pressure-cooker environment within a single interior setting is ideal for a stage drama but feels a bit, dare I say, stagey on the big screen. As I recall, the play concentrated more on the characters of Stagg and Eisenhower and the interaction between them, which again I would have liked to see more of in the film.

Incidentally, I preferred Haig’s take on the character: all bluster and pride, which seemed to me just right for the role; I found Andrew Scott less convincing, however that may be due more to the stripping back of the detailed characterisation in favour of melodrama than to the actor’s own choices. To be fair, Scott was okay as Stagg, and Brendan Fraser was okay as Eisenhower; Kerry Condon was particularly good as Kay Summersby, Eisenhower’s private secretary and confidante, who acted as their go-between.

So unfortunately, Pressure was not the film for me. I needed more reality and less melodrama. If you are genuinely interested in the actual meteorological events leading up to D-Day, you are better off doing your own research and this is a good place to start.