A History Lesson on the 13th Amendment - NOT A 7.7!!

Rating: 2/10 (11 March 2013)

There are films for entertainment and there are films to win awards. This fails on both accounts in my humble opinion. I give it a two because it probably cost them a lot of money to make and I feel bad for them. As an average person in the street open to watching different genre's of film this was extremely difficult to watch and let's be honest, stay awake.
Firstly, this is obviously not an action film however IMDb states it is a biography (half a tick), history (tick albeit on the 13th Amendment rather than Lincoln) and drama (no tick). Lincoln lacked drama. If you exclude the 10 minutes of voting on the 13th Amendment there was little drama to pull you into the film.
Lincoln (Lewis) Grandpa Simpson'd his way through scene after scene speaking down to the floor during most of his monologues. He won an Oscar for his performance likely due to his ability to appear arthritic, tired and a little senile for the entire movie. I would suggest this was not very difficult and simply involved staying up late to learn his long winded speeches. At one point during one such speech to his party members, one states in disgust that he can not bear another one of his speeches and storms out of the room forcing me to let out an involuntary chuckle in agreement. (Funnily enough as the speech eventually concludes he appears from the shadows as if he has listened for the whole time??)
Tommy Lee Jones also won best supporting actor for his role as Thaddeus Stevens when in fact this was no different from most of his film parts. You know what you're going to get with Jones. Stern look, short abrupt dialog, stern look, furrowed brow, now pondering look. I feel he won this award as he injected a very small amount of life into the film and provided the struggling viewer a beacon of light to stay awake as the film died a slow death over 2 and half hours.
A few other reviewers have stated Sally Field overacted in her role as Mrs. Mary Lincoln and I would have to agree with them. The overacting was so apparent it was laughable and there was no chemistry between Jones and Fields on screen.
In summary, if you like watching long winded speeches about random events, enjoy the political process of government, want to learn about the 13th Amendment and oppose drama or other forms of excitement as it frays your nerves then watch Lincoln.