The Monuments Men

 

• Released Internationally on 07/02/14
• Released in Malta by KRS on 19/02/14

Review (01/03/14)

3-word review: An odd disappointment.

 

It wasn’t easy to figure out why I didn’t love this. The ingredients all seemed fine, and I was in the mood for some good old adventure. But the film is unusually disjointed and bumpy, especially when compared to George Clooney’s excellent previous films as director. Something must have gone wrong at some point, because the film got delayed, and the end result seems slightly unpolished.

It’s not a complete mess, of course. The film still has some wonderful moments and an overall glaze of class, and a lot of effort clearly went into the WW2 setting and worldwide scope of the film. It tells the story of the piecemeal band of professionals who were assembled towards the end of the war to try to find and preserve the vast collections of priceless art that had gone missing as the war swept through Europe. The Nazi antagonists and the treasure hunt atmosphere give the proceedings a decidedly Indiana Jones feel, which is perfectly complemented by Alexandre Desplat’s vintage musical score, which pays homage to Jones as well as older classics and is probably the single best thing about the entire film.

The cast assembled by Clooney is top notch, but this might be part of the problem. As the team members are dispatched all over the continent, it’s hard to keep up with all of them but still give them enough time to make the characters anything more than superficial stereotypes. Maybe two characters less, and their scenes on the cutting room floor, would have made this the slick, old-school adventure story it was meant to be.

 

 

Trailers:
https://trailers.apple.com/trailers/sony_pictures/themonumentsmen/