Poor script wastes brilliant cast and fascinating story

Rating: 5/10 (26 February 2014)

I was drawn by the stellar cast to see this and the storyline looks like interesting. But I was let down from the very beginning.
This is by far the weakest script I have seen for a long time. The story is worth telling as art is part of our collective heritage. How Hitler loved art and his subsequent snatching collections over Europe seemed a natural development of his invasion over Europe, but destroying these tens of thousands of priceless artwork when he failed was something the Allies had to stop. This aspect of WWII has not been told and how these brave men from the Allies saved our heritage – tens of thousands of paintings, altarpiece, water color, sculptures and archives - should be a fascinating story – if it was told well.
We have an excellent cast to start with - George Clooney (who also directs this piece), Matt Damon, Bill Murray, John Goodman, Jean Dujardin, and Cate Blanchett etc - all with superb acting skills. But the poor script and plot development scatter them in areas where we neither see their character development nor their passion in art even though they play the roles of architect, museum curator, professors and art historians who are sent to the warfront to save seized art collections from the Nazis and return them to their owners. With these experts' passion in art there should be a sense of solidarity and admiration but we do not see it. The portrayal of leadership and hard work by Frank Stokes (George Clooney) is also very weak.
The script structure is very loose and often focus on unnecessary details such as their hasty military training and how they interact with the frontline soldiers. The total positioning and tone of the film is misplaced. Art can be solemn and serious and it can be portrayed in a light-hearted way. Perhaps the producers were trying to create a lighter and comic atmosphere to lighten up the seriousness of art and history but it did not work very well and the audience is always left in mid- air.
The way they distilled the troupe of 300+ monuments men and women in real life to seven people is a good try – if they can vividly depict their characters but the film failed to do so. And towards the second half of the movie, showing how the task force discovered the hidden treasure and shipping them are just too bland and hasty.
All these pretty faces and excellent acting skills are wasted. It could have been much much better. I can perhaps only remember Cate Blanchet's sexy and strong French accent and her seductive gesture towards Matt Damon when she gives him her only copy of detailed ledger of art collections whisked away by the Nazis. Yet even her repeated line of "This is Paris" sounds pretentious and unnatural for her character.
It is a good intention to tell a WWII story from the point of preserving art and culture how brutal the Fuhrer is toward art, even though it is his interest and passion to loot them all into his Fuhrermuseum in Austria. Some of the haunting scenes, such as barrels of gold teeth from the Jews, and rows of paintings, sculptures and gold bars can be made more dramatic with camera angles and tracking. Another waste. The whole movie was like a buffet with excellent ingredients but poor cooking skills and display arrangement so the whole dining experience is ruined. Lot of sighs. It is in fact quite heart-wrenching to see such potentials wasted. It could have been an otherwise brilliant and amazing story.
Purely for your interest, for more details on the real Monuments Men, please see: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/true-story-monuments-men- 180949569/