Fails to connect on the most important level: emotionally

Rating: 5/10 (16 June 2013)

Despite all the hype and raving reviews from film critics like Pauline Kael, I found "Citizen Kane" to be too contrived, stilted, unreal, as if I were reading a classic comic book. The gimmicks with lighting and camera angles added to this comic-book presentation of the picture as well.
The film fails emotionally. One does not feel for the central character or any of the characters, in fact. The closest it comes to the portrayal of a human connection is when Kane fires his college chum from one of his newspapers. And there it ends. Even when Kane dies, we cannot feel anything for this man. And the biggest gimmick of all contrived by Wells was the "rosebud" mystery. According to Gore Vidal, Hearst referred to Davies most private part with this term. How can the viewer connect emotionally to this gimmick, more appropriate for a hoochie-coochie carnival act than a work of art.
Too stylized, too detached, too contrived, too gimmicky leaves the viewer unable to suspend disbelief and experience the reality of the story. Welles played with his audience, as he did in "War of the Worlds", like a smart-alecky kid. Consequently, reviews by critics extolling this film as the greatest film of all time have left me doubting their artistic credentials.
Trust me, you won't be re-watching this film over and over; however, it is worth a first viewing.