Dreadful and uninspiring

Rating: 4/10 (17 February 2015)

It seems to me that director Bennett Miller got it all wrong with this one. There's an interesting story to be told here but instead he focuses far too much time on unimportant and frankly boring aspects of the story. I have read that the real John Du Pont was capable of far more outlandish behaviour than simply the murder he committed and yet, because I suspect Miller wanted the murder to come out of the blue and be a complete surprise, we see almost none of this. The audience is made to miss out so that the director can have his "shocking" twist come to light. Furthermore, all of this is based on a true story so anyone who took a couple of minutes to look into what the film was about before going in is going to know what to expect anyway. And yet he has been nominated for Best Director at the Academy Awards (without the film even being nominated for Best Picture I might add). Lord help me.
Both Steve Carell and Mark Ruffalo have also been nominated for Academy Awards for acting in a Lead Role and Supporting Role respectively. Neither did a lot to earn their nomination either I must say. I suspect Carell has simply achieved his based on his "transformation" that we all know the Academy love so much. No one could deny he looked and acted very differently to the comedic genius we all usually are treated to, but does that make the performance great? His face stole scenes but his acting certainly didn't. I would be very surprised to hear his name read out as the winner, in fact let's write it off completely - it won't happen.
Ruffalo was better than Carell in that he really had no visual aids, but simply acted his socks off. The poorly written script really didn't give him a lot to work with but he did his absolute best with what he was given. His chances of winning are probably dented more so by the film itself than anything. If J.K. Simmons wasn't such an absolute lock though I think he may have been in with a chance.
The film had real potential, but sadly the director and screenwriters were so intent on making sure this wasn't an entertaining thriller (that may have hurt its search for awards you see) that they managed to kill the watchability factor almost altogether. For a movie absolutely drowned in dialogue, none of it is in the least bit inspiring or memorable. Every character seems about as depressed as a human can possibly be in every single scene from start to finish. No scenes, apart from the murder scene and perhaps the mirror smashing scene, have any oomph or kick to them at all. All this equals a very tedious watch with minimal payoff. Very disappointing.