Not bad . . . just dull.

Rating: 7/10 (12 July 2009)

This film was beautifully made and acted, but I personally found it dull. The dialogue (by playwright and screenwriter Robert Bolt) was wooden, uninteresting and verging on pseudo-Shakespearean (Bolt's eternal flaw, I believe, was his inferiority complex over William Shakespeare. I wish he could have stopped trying to be so classicist for once and attempted to write something with some real verve). The acting was fine (bravo Robert De Niro for adding some real depth) but could have been enhanced by a more vibrant script. The endless shots of foliage and waterfalls I feel were distracting more than anything else. I mean, how interesting is a waterfall after you've seen 20+ shots of it? Really? Overall this is not exactly a bad film, it can make one think, but I came away thinking that it could have been so much more.