entertaining but shallow

Rating: 7/10 (25 December 2010)

Entertaining comedy/drama/fantasy has a lot to keep you busy (and excellent special effects), but doesn't measure up to its epic pretensions. It would've benefited from sticking to comedy and eschewing sentiment. Instead it pushes every button imaginable to jerk a reaction out of the viewer, and tries to dictate your emotions with a pushy music score. The movie lapses into silliness at times, and is self-indulgent for the last hour. Director Robert Zemeckis attempts to evoke each era by illustrating its clichÃ©s and by scoring it to a procession of over-familiar songs that serve as lazy, embarrassingly obvious signifiers of their times (Sweet Home Alabama, Hound Dog, Blowin' in the Wind, California Dreamin', For What it's Worth, On the Road Again, Mrs. Robinson, etc.). I love a lot of those songs, but they've become clichÃ©s themselves by now. Tom Hanks is funny and convincing in the title role, but Forrest is too much of an invincible saint to be very interesting.