Waaaaaay too slow for me.....poor

Rating: 5/10 (12 March 2009)

I have only ever seen Daniel Craig in one other film - the disappointing Munich - and wanted to see what the star fuss was about here with this one. The answer? Nothing. He wasn't bad here by no means - but the film let him down and by some mad counter-balancing act, he let the film down too. I must also admit to disliking Liev Schreiber as an actor but here he was more than good. In fact, I'll so far as to say if he had the lead then maybe the film would have been more enjoyable. Craig just didn't seem to fit. He looked exactly like he was - an actor playing a part. His hair was too perfect, his frame did not look like it missed too many meals, his eyes too pretty-boy for a hardened leader living rough in the woods. Schreiber on the other hand looked like a man born to live in the forest and had the ruthlessness in him to kill anything that dared get in his way.
The storyline involves the desperate attempts of Jews retreating to the forest to escape the certain death from the Germans. Because it is also a true story - then the signs should be good. But the dull, slow-pacing, episodic way that Zwick tells the story is enough to bore you to tears. Also the ending is a trifle insulting to be honest. Remember this guy also made The Last Samarai - another slow, poor-ending film.
The story centers on the 3 brothers who are the leaders of this group of Jewish survivours - Craig, Screiber and Jamie Bell. But Bell gets pushed into the background and hardly has anything to do here until a brief flurry near the end. The remainder of the group are for me - two dimensional and stereotypical to really care about. And some parts of the movie are downright ridiculous. In an attack on a German Outpost - Schreiber's character receives multiple gunshots to his body (in a poorly edited scene by the way). To me I felt sure this meant certain death, but the next day he had his arm in sling, and that was that! HE HAD BEEN SHOT SEVERAL TIMES AT CLOSE RANGE IN THE CHEST and without any medical supervision he not only survives, but looks stronger than ever. How is that possible? Even Arnie's Terminator would have at least flinched a couple of times at this assault.
In the end the film was waaaaaaay too slow, not engaging enough and despite some strong performances by some of the cast, some nice photography along the way - it just doesn't gel. The false Jewish accents coupled with the polish and Russian dialog - hinders rather than helps. Poor. 5/10.