Interesting subject, confused screenplay!

Rating: 5/10 (25 February 2014)

This is a good story based on the WW2 theft of art treasures by the Nazis but it lacks continuity and meaningful direction and screenplay. Various characters are presented but you wonder where they all fit in and what happens to them.
There are goofs in the historical sequence of events. With the exception of Matt Damon you wonder if the elderly group of Monuments Men would realistically survive on the Western Front in 1944. Why did Cate Blanchett and Hugh Bonneville want to be in this movie? Cate gives a good performance as a French art gallery curator. Hugh is more uncomfortable in his role as the token British contribution to the mission. He is quite a contrast to his more familiar role as the Earl of Grantham in Downton Abbey.
The story is good but the production should have been better. There are a series of vignettes but not tied together well. The subject has not been treated with enough depth.