Good Night, and Good Riddance

Rating: 1/10 (27 April 2006)

Can I really have been watching the same movie as the multitude eulogizing on IMDb?
I knew we were in for something profound when in the opening titles we were reminded this was an independent film made under the Warner banner, a feeling reinforced by the fact that the film was shot in B&W. Or was it that Mr Clooney's budget wouldn't run to colour stock, after all, he did boast in the pompous commentary to his brainchild that he hired the lead because he was "cheap".
Seldom have I seem such an unengaging movie with such a lack of character definition masquerading as important work apart from the equally excruciating Crash. The unbelievably one-dimensional characters merely come across as smug as they slap each other's backs at another blow for freedom and democracy, while David Strathairn staring moodily into the camera and blowing smoke everywhere as he educates an awestruck US public with his masterful insights merely made me splutter with laughter. As for the character that is so hounded he gasses himself, the issue is treated in such a perfunctory way that five minutes later it is easier to remember he was the barber in the Man Who Wasn't There than who he was in the movie. Joe? Bob? Bill?
So Mr Clooney, stick to playing hunks in shoot-em-ups and gung-ho war movies or the lead in toe-curling romantic comedies and spare us your half-baked efforts at directing a film about some 50s TV presenter that only an American could really care about.
The only good things about this debacle are that it is gloriously short and ends so abruptly you'd think they'd run out of ideas had you not just watched it and realized they didn't have one in the first place.
Good Night, and Good Riddance.