Misses the mark

Rating: 4/10 (9 March 2001)

This was a frustrating movie for me to watch. Stalingrad looked like a once-great city devastated by war -- except for the clear paths through the rubble. The city at night and the interiors of buildings looked convincingly devastated -- except for the soft glow of light that radiated from some unknown point that kept any area from being completely in shadow. Haggard, grizzled, dirty, starving Russian soldiers and civilians looked like they'd been through a physical and emotional wringer -- except for Jude Law and his perfect hair or Rachel Weisz and her clean, made up face. The battle scenes, while impressive in scale never immersed me in the experience since most of the time the camera statically recorded the fight from a distance on the sideline. The plot and characters were also seemingly recorded from a distance. The writer knew which buttons to push, and pushed them all in the right order, but without much emotional involvement. The whole time I knew I should be feeling horror at watching the Russian infantry mowed down by first the Germans, then their own troops. I knew that I was supposed to hope that the two lovers who were brought together in a war lived happily ever after. A big flashing sign was almost visible over the angelic Stalingrad youth which read "care about me" and I knew I was supposed to be concerned for his well being. The actors did their best with what they had and the performances were great considering the lack of depth with which they were written. It was like that for just about every facet of the movie: you saw what they were trying to do, they just missed the target with every shot. The whole affair came off like a movie with aspirations of greatness rather than a great movie. Disappointing.