Haunting true life story told with great acting and chilling atmospherics

Rating: 7/10 (6 January 2015)

I've been waiting to see this for quite a while now. It's been the prize winning thoroughbred of many a film festival this year. It was glorified and pontificated, hyped and praised as a masterpiece by everyone who saw it at Cannes, it's been a whispered about guarded jewel for a large portion of the year. Then everyone else, you know saw it.
It's a fantastically acted, well-crafted movie, I enjoyed it very much, interesting premise, fascinating real life event, chilling cinematography and music. The problem is that I never felt that the movie dragged but I did feel that they struggled to flesh out the accounts of what happened into something deeply compelling. At times it does feel really stilted though never boring or uninteresting. Many aspects felt heavily emphasized and contrived to flesh out performances or political themes to attract awards voters. Other aspects seem cut, or missing to spare the objections of the families. Bennett Miller mentions in interviews that he agonized and laboured to find a presentable cut of this film and it really shows.
If I'm going to take anything away from this it's an affirmation of what I've known for many years, that Steve Carell and Channing Tatum can act, they've certainly proved that here.