Looking forward to George Clooney’s new historical drama, The Monuments Men?
I was, until I saw it.
This isn’t to say it’s terrible by any stretch; it just has fundamental problems that leave it dry.
To start off, the story itself is functional: set nearing the end of World War II, the film starts with Frank Stokes (Clooney) assembling an elite team of artists to identify and protect great works of art from the Nazi forces who have been ordered by Hitler to collect and in some cases destroy them. The team consists of a rather talented cast, including Jean Dujardin, John Goodman, Bill Murray, Matt Damon, and quite a few others.
Charismatic and comedic, the cast does well with what little is expected of them, but it never quite feels like enough. In a film that has a cast of experts coming together, each must be allowed to showcase their particular talent, time must be spent developing their characters, and at the very least, they must be placed in a situation that lets them combine their talents to complete an objective.
Even if just one of these aspects is done really well, it can make for a fun experience, but in The Monuments Men, not one is done to any satisfying level. They seem content to revel in an idea that’s akin to “eh, almost good enough.” Most of the film has the team split into groups of two, with no obvious spatial or emotional connection to one another. It really doesn’t work and leaves the film feeling episodic.
Worse still, the film commits the cardinal sin of establishing a sense of urgency, but not operating as if there is any sort of haste when Hitler decrees that if Germany falls or he is killed, all of the stolen art is to be destroyed.
It ends up being a missed opportunity for suspense and perhaps some character development, which puzzlingly is present only in Cate Blanchett’s character, who is absent from the film so much you’ll often forget she’s in it at all.
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The Monuments Men is heavily underwritten and plain boring. It has a few cool moments, due to either Dujardin’s charm or Murray’s comedic timing, but mostly, it just panders along a poorly explored and underdeveloped story.
Do yourself a favour and go watch The Lego Movie instead; it’s awesome.
T.J. Brown
Contributor
