Directed by: George Clooney.
Written by: George Clooney & Grant Heslov based on the book by Robert M. Edsel and Bret Witter.
Starring: George Clooney (Frank Stokes), Matt Damon (James Granger), Bill Murray (Richard Campbell), Cate Blanchett (Claire Simone), John Goodman (Walter Garfield), Jean Dujardin (Jean Claude Clermont), Hugh Bonneville (Donald Jeffries), Bob Balaban (Preston Savitz), Dimitri Leonidas (Sam Epstein), Justus von Dohnányi (Viktor Stahl), Holger Handtke (Colonel Wegner).
After
his first two films as a director, George Clooney looked like he could become
another major actor-director – not unlike someone like Warren Beatty. Yet his
last three films have all been somewhat lesser efforts – a little too safe, too
unwilling to take much in the way of risks. His debut film, Confessions of a
Dangerous Mind, may well be his best – the one where Clooney looked to be
pushing himself, and although he apparently did not get along with screenwriter
Charlie Kaufman – the result was a fascinating, funny exploration of a man who
lied to make his life more interesting – and was also visually excellent. His
follow-up – Good Night and Good Luck – looked great in black and white, and was
a wonderful film about Edward R. Murrow’s fight with Joseph McCarthy – but already
the signs were there that Clooney was more comfortable with straight ahead,
safe dramas. With Leatherheads, he tried to make a screwball comedy – and it
didn’t really work. The Ides of March was better than many gave it credit for –
but it still felt like what it was – a filmed play with some great
performances, and not much else. Now comes The Monuments Men – a WWII “men on a
mission” movie which is the dullest film Clooney has made yet as a director.
The film is agreeable for the most part – but not the least bit challenging,
and it feel significantly longer than its two hour runtime. He’s got a great
cast, but doesn’t seem to know what to do with them. He’s got a fascinating
plot, but takes the safest route imaginable with it. In short, while The Monuments
Men is hardly a bad movie, it’s something perhaps worse – completely
forgettable.
Clooney
stars in the film as Frank Stokes – an art professor who in the waning days of
WWII wants to ensure that the culture of Europe – all the art, the buildings,
etc – are protected and preserved. Hitler has been stealing art from everywhere
the Nazis have gone – all in the hopes of starting his own, massive museum. He
has also left orders that if Germany falls, all of it is to be destroyed.
Stokes gets permission to assemble a team of men to try and prevent this from
happening. It’s difficult, because the army doesn’t much care about it – which
is understandable. They want to win the war, and lose as few men as possible.
So Stokes is stuck assembling a team of men who otherwise would not be fighting
at all – James Granger (Matt Damon), who has a weak heart. Richard Campbell
(Bill Murray) and Preston Savita (Bob Balaban) who would normally be too old.
The same goes for Walter Garfield (John Goodman) – although his weight probably
doesn’t help either. Donald Jeffries (Hugh Bonneville) is a Brit the get as
their point man – and is a hopeless drunk. Jean Claude Clermont (Jean Dujardin)
is a Frenchman with bad eyes. Eventually, they’ll enlist Sam Epstein (Dimitri
Leonidas) – a German Jew who fled to American 1938 – to be their driver. And
Granger makes friends with Claire Simone (Cate Blanchatt) a French
“collaborator”, who documented every piece of art that flowed through the
museum she worked at in the hopes that eventually it could be tracked down and
returned. This is what the Monuments Men want as well.
For
a movie about war, The Monuments Men is mainly kind of dull – this is
understandable in a way, because these men don’t see much actual fighting. They
mainly come in behind the frontlines and try and identify, recover and ship out
the art they find. It’s all kind of a puzzle, because the art doesn’t seem to
be where they think it should be. For a movie about art however, The Monuments
Men doesn’t seem to know too much about it. Stokes gives a good, impassioned
speech about “preserving the foundation of Western culture” and the danger of
destroying a people’s achievement as a way of exterminating the people
themselves – but other than a few moments of awe when discussing a few pieces
of art, the movie doesn’t seem very interested in that either. Worse still,
Clooney has assembled a talented cast – but not given them much to do. You
would think that teaming up Murray and Balaban – who share most of their scenes
together – would be a surefire way to guarantee entertainment, but it really
doesn’t work. Neither does teaming up Goodman and Dujardin – meaning when
tragedy strikes the pair, it doesn’t have much of an impact. The best pairing
is undeniably Damon and Blanchatt – who have a real chemistry together.
Whenever they are on screen, the movie comes alive. Whenever they’re not, you
wish they were.
The
movie progresses pretty much precisely the way we expect it to – and ends
happily enough (although the final scene in the movie is almost laughably
sincere). As a director, Clooney doesn’t show all that much imagination – but
he’s competent behind the camera. In front of it, he still has the same Clooney
charm – although it’s a little subdued this time, as he is given most of the
movie’s “big important” moments and speeches.
The
Monuments Men is far from a horrible movie – but it is a movie that plays it
far too safe to be truly good either. There doesn’t seem to be much at stake in
the movie – and this is a film that needs that sense of danger and weight
behind it. Instead, everything about the film feels inconsequential. We knew
there were problems when it moved out the Oscar season at the last minute, so
this shouldn’t be too surprising. But it’s still disappointing. If Clooney
wants to be Warren Beatty, he’s got a long way to go.
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