A good film about a great man

Rating: 8/10 (26 June 2011)

If only the film was a little deeper, a little more complex, it could have been an all time great epic.
As it is, it comes close.
The pluses; the power of the story and the history, and Ben Kingsley's amazing performance, which, somehow, like Gandhi himself, is both modest and incredibly powerful.
The minuses; many of the supporting characters are underdeveloped, sometimes to the point of caricature. Most of the 'villains' (the British, the leader of the Muslim separatist movement) are presented as one dimensional cartoons that Gandhi himself probably would have disapproved of as lacking compassion and understanding.
Also, there's a feeling, despite it's 3+hour length, that we really never get to know Gandhi as a human being, not just a "great, historic figure".
The best moments in the film are his moments of self-doubt and questioning, as well as his complex family life, but those are few and far between.
Still, an epic telling of one of the most important, influential and inspiring people of the last 500 years.