Never Gets Off The Ground

Rating: 4/10 (22 January 2005)

It's both unbelievable and inexplicable that this movie has just picked up a Best Film Golden Globe at the expense of the hundred times superior Million Dollar Baby. Essentially what we have here are two great performances, one in the first half, Cate Blanchett, and one in the second half, Alan Alda linked by some passable photography and journeyman acting with a miscast leading man striving to bring credibility to a role with which he seems totally out of synch. Jude Law is about as credible as Errol Flynn as Jim Carry would be but thankfully he has only one short scene in which to be laughed off the screen. Similarly Kate Beckinsale completely misses the spitfire in Ava Gardner and seems to have the impression she's playing June Allyson. At two hours plus it's like the Spruce Goose itself, too ponderous to really fly.