What's all the fuss about?

Rating: 4/10 (10 September 2006)

CITIZEN KANE pioneered some innovative technical practices we take for granted today, and it proved a worth vehicle for introducing some very fine actors & actresses to Hollywood. Ray Collins, Agnes Moorhead, Joseph Cotton and Orson Wells all made big impressions later on in their careers, but this film is just too boring and you don't care about the characters. First issue: boredom...CK is not boring because of the age in which it was produced - Gone with The Wind, Double Indemnity, Mrs Miniver, Casablanca, The Postman Always Rings Twice, The Big Sleep all belong to this era and still hold almost every movie fan's attention from start to finish, even after repeated screenings. Perhaps CK is warning us against the evils of materialism, which is laudable. Kane has millions and spends compulsively until it doesn't interest him anymore. He acquires one fantastic woman, battles with her, then finds another. Wife #2 is a hotcha-girl and seems none too bright, but she's just ignorant and her character-development is the one truly interesting thing about the entire film as her gathering sophistication reveals an intelligent and finally independent woman. But, little else interests me very long. We're told about his wonderful, massive house and don't get to see much of it. Kane never seems to have much fun and I don't care why he doesn't. The odd, stark shots of theatres, libraries, offices, etc. bored me stiff the first time I saw the movie and are still just a bunch of stuff to plod through the next time I watch it. Second issue: Why don't I care?? We're treated to that "Rosebud" remark early on, but I can never find myself caring about it. So what if it's the sled he had as a little boy. The movie doesn't make me care about Kane either as adult OR child. Mr. Bernstein is a likable kiss-ass, he admits, and he's mildly interesting. Jed Leland goes to one of Susan Kane's operatic performances, gets bored with mediocrity and is too cowardly to finish a bad review, gets drunk, gets fired. Hoh-hum. Mean old Mr. Thatcher is a little interesting, and his final scene with Kane is a humorous island in a sea of mediocrity: Thatcher and Kane should be good, old friends - - they even finish each others' sentences, but they're old enemies and always will be. Then everybody gets old and/or dies. So what? God willing, that's what'll happen to most of us. This movie shows us that, as time goes by, the once young and lively become old and slow...then the Kane's life is over and there's a half-hearted search for Rosebud and nobody ever discovers the origin of Kane's dying remark. Big deal.