Better than I expected

Rating: 8/10 (6 March 2011)

I confess I liked this movie more than I expected to. While not being exactly profound, it is at least thoughtful. That is, while there are chase scenes and all, it never devolves into a mindless action flick, there's still a story going on and some actual ideas involved. And if it employs a ridiculously simplistic vision of history, at least it employs a vision of history. And I can never be too unhappy with a movie that comes down on the side of the Enlightenment!
But I confess that what I really liked was the romance. Chemistry is a funny thing, I guess, and I've seen reviews here which claimed that the two leads didn't have it. But that was not my experience. I definitely felt the two protagonists belonging together and was pulling for the romance throughout. Since I left the theater I keep thinking about sharing this film with my overseas girlfriend, so I guess that's pretty romantic. :)
A masterpiece? Maybe not. But I definitely felt it was two hours well spent, which is rare enough these days.