This is a film I was looking forward to. My interest in art, a stellar cast, so much potential to be informative and fun; all these things piqued my interest and gave me hope. Alas, expectations can be a bitch.
This is a film I was looking forward to. My interest in art, a stellar cast, so much potential to be informative and fun; all these things piqued my interest and gave me hope. Alas, expectations can be a bitch.
Many of us know that during World War II, Hitler and the Nazi’s had a bug up their ass about aquiring ALL of the art from every country they invaded and occupied. Hitler wanted to create a huge Furher Museum containing all this art and sculpture. Well, the Allies weren’t having any of that nonsense, so a mission was devised to send i a handful of men that were knowledgable about art and taske dthem with retrieving as much of this stolen art as possible.
THe Monuments Men consists of; George Clooney playing Frank Stokes, the man leading this mission. Along with him are Matt Damon as James Granger, Bill Murray as Richard Campbell, and other greats like John Goodman, Jean Dujardin (The Artist), Hugh Bonneville (Downton Abbey), Cate Blanchett, and Bob Balaban. WIth a cast like that and Clooney directing, how could it possibly go wrong? Ah, the oft-asked question of Hollywood movies. And despite this being based on a true story, the script still isn’t gripping enough, or fun enough, to be great. Hard to believe, when you also consider the fact that The Monuments Men is about a group of middle-aged men (or a little older) that have no real combat experience are to be sent as close to the front lines as possible to retrieve art stolen by the Nazi’s – and are not keen on giving it back. It all sounds like quite a bit of excitment, yes? Yeah, you’d think.
Unfotunately, some of the characters are sent to warious cities to find certain pieces of art and that sort of breaks up the momentum. And though we get to know some of these guys, we don’t get quite enough to create a fullfilling emotional bond. There are some serious moments here, as this is historically very serious material. But there are, thankfully, some fun moments as well, as you might expect from this great cast. But the laughs are not generously given, and I can’t help but feel as if they should have been. Bill Murray is fine here, for instance, but only once or twice are we treated to his trademark look, or an obvious opportunity to have more fun than he appears to be having. He plays it pretty straight.
I got the overall impression that maybe Clooney didn’t want to lose any of the potential gravitas of the msessage that losing people in a war is terrible enough, but to lose everything that they created, to lose a culture, is like wiping everything they were out of existence. They state that very thing once or twice, and although I concur whole-heartedly, I felt this film needed to inject more of a sense of fun, dark comedic wit to balance out the drama. I know that might sound strange, but handled correctly, I don’t think any of the drama would have been lost here. Dare I say, it could have used a bit more of the stylish, charismatic humor that the first Ocean’s 11 remake had. Though that film was empty calories, at least I know I had fun while I was watching it. There was a certain kind of superficial delight in the way the actors interacted. They seemed to be having fun. In The Monuments Men, they all just seemed to be doing their job, and all doing it as the straight man. Every time you saw a glimmer of humor, it was too short-lived.
Not to say there werent some good things here. If you have some time one day and this turns up on cable, or on Netflix instant, give it go. Other than the things noted, the performances were fine. Some stronger than others. And it’s a great history lesson of sorts. The attention to detail of the Art Department is excellent. It really just another case of a script that needed a once over.
Alas, though, The Monuments Men is still shy of three kittenhands. Maybe two and 2/3’s? But then, with talent like this, it should be way higher, soooo, clsoer to two, really. These guys should be better than this.
~ Neil T. Weakley, your average movie-goer, really dissapointed in this one.