An Award Season Misfit Moved to a February Release

Rating: Null/10 (26 March 2014)

In the early scenes of "The Monuments Men," director George Clooney introduces his supporting cast of characters portrayed by John Goodman, Bill Murray, and Bob Balaban. Humiliatingly sending this group of elderly actors through physical fitness trainings before the film transitions into its World War II plot, the audience could confuse "The Monuments Men" with last November's "Last Vegas."'
"The Monuments Men" boasts an impressive advertisement to entice the interest of the public. The cast includes Matt Damon, Cate Blanchett, and Clooney himself; three reliable actors who can usually earn their films a stamp of approval. However, "The Monuments Men" deceives its audience with a promise of a quality storyline that features American soldiers searching to retrieve irreplaceable art that Hitler and the Nazis have stolen from France.
George Clooney may have been on the path of becoming the next Warren Beatty, a heartthrob actor turned serious director, until "The Monuments Men." His direction is not the film's sorest aspect, but the directing itself is substantially weaker than the skills he has shown recently with "The Ides of March" and "Good Night, and Good Luck." He attempts to run the story with a path in mind, but his attempts feel like his legs were injured while trying run on that path. The film's score adds an essence of floating patriotism, which offsets the comedic tone established by writing.
The difficulty of "The Monuments Men" is the screenplay. In addition to acting and directing, Clooney also wrote the screenplay with co-writer Grant Heslov for "The Monuments Men." The dialogue tries diligently to make clever cultural references and create amusing one-liners, but most of the written word in the script flops like a poorly made piece of sushi. I wonder if Clooney was consciously writing the script or if he was actually executing effort; if that is the case, my heart goes out to his lacking ability to write competent dialogue.
With those high-status actors, one would think they would be able to be the saving grace of "The Monuments Men." Sadly, the male actors show no signs of characterization, making their characters feel like extensions of their own personalities. The only performer who is marginally successful is Cate Blanchett. In her Oscar-winning performance in "Blue Jasmine," Blanchett played a character that arguably no other actress could portray except her. In contrast, her character, Claire in "The Monuments Men" is a role generic enough to be played by any aspiring actress. In her first scene, Claire spits into someone's drinking glass and my response was a sympathetic one, knowing Blanchett is capable of better work.
"The Monuments Men" wants to be a serious film, but falls back on comedy, becoming a real- life treasure hunt. Clooney attempts to force sentiment on his audience, but it is unearned and unwanted. "The Monuments Men" was originally set to release last December (a fitting release for pushing films in the Oscar race), but was moved to an alternative February. My guess is the studio realized "The Monuments Men" was nothing more than an award season misfit.