Like a warm salad

Rating: 5/10 (5 April 2016)

As a scriptwriter I have read many books on what makes a good film. Quite often you hear the same phrases over and over again; such as 'Its all about the structure', make the audience care for the protagonist', and most importantly, 'if you can cut out a scene and it makes no difference to the story, cut it out.' And essentially that is the problem with this film. There were so many scenes which had no relevance to the plot that I wondered if I was watching the out takes. Clearly the golden age of Hollywood is full of treasures, and the story of a studio fixer in the 50's should be the stuff Oscars are made of. But the George Clooney plot line slowly fades, until halfway through you really don't care what happens to him. A whole load of actors come and go, and again, nobody cares, the Scarlett Johansson story being pointless. And it is a shame as all that talent, including the sets and the lighting, is wasted by a poor script. I did enjoy the Ralph Fiennes character, but as a cinema experience, I came, I saw, I conked out.