Unspectacular "against the odds" affair high on gloss but weak on dialogue, performances and character

Rating: Null/10 (26 July 2007)

A senior female Senator pushes the issue of the role of women in the military and finds herself with an ultimatum  put some test cases through the Navy SEAL training programme and, if they make it, then the possibility of equality is on the table. The applicants are varied but Senator DeHaven settles on Lt Jordan O'Neil, an intel officer who has the smarts and the drive to potentially make it but also the looks to help by being quite "media-friendly".
I might be wrong but I do recall GI Jane being one of the films that saw Moore's career start/continue its slide from box office success to box office risk. It is also one that mostly attracts fairly poor reviews from most audiences. Watching it recently I must admit that I can see both sides of the argument  which is why the rating for this film is almost squarely on 5 out of 10 as well I suppose! At its heart the film is a solid tale about overcoming obstacles in the pursuit of equality. It is not a theme that we haven't seen before and it is one that I thought might be interesting. To an extent it is and it does push just enough dramatic buttons to do the job  even an all-action conclusion. The problem is though the film is not really intelligent enough to rise above these basics.
So what we do get is a rather noisy affair where guts and violence are exposed in all the characters and probably too many shots of O'Neil in tiny shorts and vest doing push-ups with lots of sweaty flesh exposed; I got the point it was making but it did feel a bit gratuitous. Likewise the narrative did emphasis the degree to which O'Neil proved herself equal in terms of violence and aggression, although I was glad that the overall thrust was that she was an equal member of the team, with her intel skills being what earned her her place rather than the ability to kick people.
Moore is a good presence in the lead role but she never really has a character that goes deeper than one that can be described in simple words like "determined" or "gutsy". Nor can she make at times terrible dialogue work ("suck my d**k" etc) but then I cannot imagine who could. Mortensen hangs round moodily in tiny shorts doing a weak version of the movie cliché  at times he comes off more like a wife-beater than a motivator and trainer. Bancroft is hammy to the point of being a bit silly in her early scenes; she pulls it back a bit at the end but not too much. The support cast all feature typical performances from Chestnut, von Bargen, Caviezel, Kestner and others.
Overall then a so-so film. It does the basic well enough within the gloss of a typically Hollywood film. However with some terrible dialogue, two dimensional characters and a predictable narrative arch, it is likely to disappoint in as many ways as it engages.