Overrated Rough-Cut of a Movie

Rating: 6/10 (28 January 2003)

I saw this movie at the german premiere in berlin. Steven Spielberg, Tom Hanks and Leonardo DiCaprio appeared and the little girls outside went nuts. All Spielberg had to say about the movie before the screening was "Nobody dies in this movie." Hmmm. Anyway, the movie was quite boring. If you have seen the trailer (which was good), you have seen enough. It is always very suspicious when the most interesting part of a story is, that it is based on a true story. The movie gives everything away in the first five minutes and has nothing to add in the following two hours. Camerawork, production value, design, acting - all very high standard, but the movie lacks a heart. Maybe that's because Spielberg was originally producer of this flick and had to jump in to direct it at the last second. It had some nice parts, I smiled sometimes and the characters are sympathetic. But it has big dragging holes in between and it's repetetive. All in all it looks like a rough cut and maybe it would have been better, if they took out another twenty five minutes. Well... maybe not. I gave it a six (out of ten).