Movie Review: The Monuments Men

Movie Review: The Monuments Men

Rated PG-13

110 minutes

Directed by George Clooney

Before I get into the review, let me give you some context. As the year went on, this movie went from not being on my most anticipated list to being my most anticipated film of 2013 (this year, it's either Interstellar or Foxcatcher). So, of course I was devastated when it got pushed to 2014. I still remained hopeful, and I still was anticipating it. It should also be noted that I am not the biggest fan of art, but that doesn't matter, as I'm not the most enthusiastic about folk music, and Inside Llewyn Davis was #2, and nearly snatched #1, on my top 10. But then the negative reviews started pouring in, and I had to lower my expectations even more. I do have the capacity to be different (I (marginally) liked the pilot for Dads, after all), so I was hoping this was one of those cases. It wasn't.

The Monuments Men was a huge, huge disappointment. It was just a bunch of driving into war sites. Not to mention that Matt Damon's Vacation in Paris is shoved in here. It's very tonally inconsistent, with a serious dramatic scene being coupled with Bill Murray and Bob Balaban arguing and bickering about smoking. Now, humor can work in dramatic pieces, but it needs to flow better. This movie didn't have the flow that was necessary to make it work. There was also a lot of needless exposition, with the film spanning 2 years in 10 minutes. The editing is very poor, with the whole film taking forever to get through. Matt Damon basically could've been cut out of this, as he was just there to demonstrate how not to speak French and to woo Cate Blanchett for information. Also, there's product placement in this. How that's possible, I don't know, but they did it.

Now, there were some positives. The horse looked very pretty. The scene with "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" is fantastic, and I'm betting would be better out of context. It definitely had a vibrant color palate (not as vibrant as what 47 Ronin seems to have, but I digress). It was shot very well by the Oscar-nominated cinematographer for Nebraska (I can't spell that last name). It looked very convincing for a WWII film. I did like Murray and Balaban's schtick in this film, and if there was a movie with just them in it, I would see it.

The Monuments Men seemed like it couldn't be bad. It was ultimately less than the sum of its parts. There was some greatness sprinkled throughout, it was just too inconsistent and long to make it work all together. I'll remember this film as the film that had very realistic art inside of it, and for the Merry Christmas scene. Other than that? Pass.

2.5/5

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