Vastly Overrated & Flabby

Rating: 5/10 (24 November 2008)

Very interesting story, but one goes away wondering what all the fuss was about. Angelina Jolie is normally hard to watch for any extended period of time (and here you have to watch her for 2.5 hours); there's a way in which she can never seem to wipe a certain smirk or sneer or leer out of her facial expression, which renders her acting always slightly false. Meanwhile, her decidedly 21st-century botoxed lips don't help much with her depiction of a woman in the 1930s. Jeffrey Donavan, in fact is about the only one who looks like he belongs there; most of the rest, including John Malkovich, seem slightly embarrassed by their clothes and their hairdos. In general, the film is marred by a lot of hammy overacting (the children overall but especially Jason Butler Harner, who becomes nearly unwatchable). Indeed, Eastwood seems to lose control of his actors or, alternatively, to be letting them flounder around without a rope -- but Michael Kelly is memorable in a fairly small role.