One-Liner: Would you like some wine with the cheese?
If I had it my way, all World War II movies would be directed by Quentin Tarantino and all Americans would pronounce Nazis "Nat-zhis." That being said, I can appreciate an inspirational film about one of the most covered wars in our nation's history. Monuments Men was not that film.
The concept of Monuments Men — a team of art scholars going into war zones to protect the great works of our culture — is touching. Surely this group received plenty of crap from the soldiers that were on the ground for putting lives at risk to save paintings and sculptures. And the idea could have made a great film that approached the topic of WWII with a fresh set of eyes and an entirely original perspective.
Instead, director, writer, and star George Clooney decided to produce a movie that read more like cheesy propaganda than quality storytelling. As the rag tag group of unlikely heroes made their way into some of the most dangerous territory in the world, Clooney interrupted the film's action to give speech after rousing speech about the importance of what they were doing to their society and their freedom.
His constant stream of cliches was stuffed with pompous narcissism, and honestly, it's a real shame he wasn't one of the brave art lovers who died. I won't give away who bit the bullet, but I will say their characters weren't fleshed out enough for viewers to really care. And in the moments when it would have been great to let the audience step back and realize that these men had given their lives to preserve our culture, Clooney threw in another condescending speech for good measure.
I thought seasoned character actors like Bill Murray and John Goodman would save the predictable storyline, but sadly they didn't jump off the page the way they have in previous roles. Murray tried to strike up a camaraderie with costar Bob Balaban, but it fell flat when he wasn't given much material to work with and was instead forced to focus on the more serious subject matter.
It's no surprise that this film pushed forward its original release date to avoid competing with award season nominees. But with a cast this grand, the idea that it should have delivered on a much more impressive scale makes the disappointment more impactful.
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