17 – ‘The Monuments Men’ (George Clooney; USA/Germany) ** Weakly scripted and muddled from the outset, this tale of the last days of WW2 involves a mixed-bag squad attempting to recover and return art stolen by the Nazis during the war. “Based on a True Story” according to its opening moments, the reality apparently involved hundreds of experts scouring Europe for these spoils of war; but on screen they are a reduced to a more manageable team of 8. This reduction of the potential cast highlights some of the film’s problems. It now becomes completely unfeasible that such a mammoth task could be accomplished by such a small group. But even with the main protagonists whittled down like this, the script still does very little to create relatable, human characters out of them. Instead, it falls to the likeable ensemble cast to massage their existing screen personas to fit their roles. Some of those work in the context. Some don’t. Tonally too, the film is confused. There are 2 excellent, moving scenes involving messages sent either to or from the homefront. But these are the exceptions. Bob Balaban and Bill Murray, whilst fun, are completely out of place as a comedy relief double-act whose serious scenes are jarring and mostly unconvincing. Clooney plays himself, but with a moustache this time; Damon speaks bad French and Blanchett has very little to do as token female. John Goodman and the European contingent of Jean Dujardin, Dimitri Leonidas and (especially) Hugh Bonneville make the most impact in the smallest roles. The film is never really boring, but it is very unconvincing and an uncharacteristic misfire from Clooney as a director. A pity...
Posted on: Sun, 16 Feb 2014 23:10:12 +0000
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