Ambitious but flawed

Rating: 6/10 (6 April 2015)

Roland Joffe's stately film, 'The Mission', tells the story of indigenous Americans first embraced, then abandoned, by a Catholic Church more interested in power than in good. But the film has failings: there are multiple lead protagonists (including Robert de Nero whose role seems inadequate for his star billing), denying us a consistent perspective; the pace is slow; and the battle scenes at the end more confused than dramatic. I also found Enrico Morricone's story invasive and partly unnecessary. In addition, the plot can be summarised as bad stuff expected, bad stuff happens: it's a story extraordinarily devoid of twists. The scope is broad, but for such a simple tragedy, a smaller movie might have serviced better.