Dull, dull and thrice dull

Rating: 4/10 (21 January 2013)

Poor Daniel Day Lewis. Slave to a very dull script, one prayed for his emancipation. He richly deserves every award going for persevering and managing a magnificent delivery of one boring monologue after another. A stunning performance. This is surely the most interesting era in America's past and one should be inspired to find out more. Instead one can't help feeling that ignorance of America's short but glorious history is bliss on this occasion. I wanted to be enchanted by America's past but the only thing to marvel at in this movie is everyone's splendid teeth. It seems even impoverished 19th century slaves could access modern Hollywood dentistry. The only distraction from the turgid plot was the numerous cute views of iconic Washington buildings, with only the Lincoln memorial being conspicuous by its absence. Half way through it occurred to me that only a director of Spielberg's calibre could inject a bit of magic and rescue this movie. Perhaps he might get DDL to pull a rabbit out from under that stovepipe hat. Then I remembered it is actually a Spielberg movie and I felt somewhat cheated. The various political machinations of the ruling classes are very interesting and well portrayed but one gets the feeling the director overruled his natural instincts to wow an audience and was overburdened by the need to ensure the film carried enough gravitas. Pompous, boring, overblown, tedious and long winded, this film nearly had me petitioning for the restoration of John Wilkes Booth's reputation on the grounds of justifiable homicide. All in all I wish I'd watched Abraham Lincoln: Vampire hunter instead as I can't help thinking that the un-dead might have had more life in them.