Disappointingly awful. I don’t use the word awful lightly as I don’t like to completely malign artistic endeavors. I try to find merit in most types of subjective expressions, but this movie was painful start to finish. I was so excited to see this given it’s unlikely star studded cast and a topic which I would think would be incredibly interesting. This film was a let down top to bottom. It was pompous, overbearing, preachy, and ultimately couldn’t decide what type of movie it wanted to be.
Monuments Men deals with the true story of a platoon commissioned by FDR in the later stages of WWII to find and safeguard masterpieces which were stolen by the Nazis. Hitler had decreed that he would destroy all of the stolen art should he lose. After D-day, it became obvious that Hitler was going to lose, so in a race against the clock, a diverse group of art experts are assembled for this mission. George Clooney and Matt Damen lead the cast as Frank Stokes and James Granger respectively. It almost felt like an ‘Ocean Eleven’s’ style of ensemble with a more noble (pretentious?) purpose. Bill Murray, John Goodman, Bob Balaban, Jean Dujardin, and Cate Blanchett are all actors I love individually. I admire the attempt to bring such diverse talents together, but ultimately there was no meat in the story to latch on to. Each individual backstory was so weakly developed, there was no emotional investment in any of the characters.
George Clooney, in the director’s chair, could not decide what type of movie he wanted to make. A preachy film about art? A comedy? An action flick? A period piece? Ultimately, he tried to do all of this and succeeded at none. There was no flow to the storyline, which in turn, made it hard to be swept up by the supposed ‘race against the clock’. The humor wasn’t funny and the romantic angles were awkward. Cate Blanchett (btw, my vote for succeeding Meryl Streep as the greatest actress out there), was completely wasted. The romantic chemistry between her and Matt Damon was wooden. Clooney’s Frank Stokes was the center of the film acting as both leader and narrator for the film. Very few people can deliver a dramatic monologue as well as Clooney, but instead of coming off as inspirational, it just felt pompous whenever he droned on about art being more important than civilization or even human life itself.
I could talk about different plot points or dynamics, but I don’t think this film merits that type of review. It’s almost like Clooney tried to string together emotional and ‘Oscar’ moments with no coherent story for it to make sense. One particular scene, with Bill Murray listening to a recording of his daughter singing ‘Merry Christmas’ over the army base’s loud speakers, seemed so emotionally manipulative that all I took from it was rolling my eyes. And I LOVE Bill Murray. It takes a lot for me to be disappointed in one of his performances.
You know, when i sat down to write this review, I was determined to have at least one nice thing to say about this film. I struggle to find any redeeming value other than maybe a little historical context. I recommend buying a history school text book as it is probably less dry than this movie. I’m not even going to say wait for the DVD. I’m just going to say skip this altogether and save 2 hours of your life for something else more productive, like watching paint dry.
I give this film * star (I’m being generous)
I certainly can't argue with Tad on the artistic elements of his review, but I have a different perspective. I read the book. I read a lot of history, particularly every aspect of WWII. So when the book about this little known bit of the war was published, I gobbled it up. Now no movie can recreate the book. Most don't have any intention of doing so because the producers/directors are more interested in spinning a yarn that's only loosely based on the book.
ReplyDeleteWhat struck me about Monuments Men is how its disjointed nature, unexpected moments of humor and surprise and understated romance mirrored the text of the book and, I expect, real life. Cate Blanchett gave a perfect performance as Simone as she was portrayed in the book and, Hollywood aside, a very plausible image of a very dedicated but wary woman. She was totally believable to me. Matt Damon was also spot on. The rest of the crew was amped up, a'la Hollywood, to make what is essentially a documentary into entertainment. I was a bit put off by their efforts, but tell the story they did. It would be a better film in the hands of Ken Burns. For me it was *** stars
Intelligent commentary Fred. Thank you. The subject was fascinating to me, which is why I was so disappointed. You've convinced me to check out the book
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