A good film, with some problems

Rating: 8/10 (30 July 2002)

First, I would like to say that I enjoyed this film very much and I recommend it to anybody. However, I have noticed that many reviewers have commented on how they believe that Russell Crowe deserved to win Best Actor over Denzel Washington at the Academy Awards. Although Crowe did a good job overall, his West Virginia accent was very poor and at times he lapsed back into his native Kiwi accent. Many times he attempted to cover his poor accent by mumbling his lines. Denzel Washington definitely deserved to win the Oscar over Crowe. My second problem with the film is that it is a Disneyfied version of the real story. While the film is excellent standing on its own, when taken in context with the book it comes across as a bit of a cheat.