'Monuments Men" Makes Point Powerfully Yet with Restraint

Rating: 10/10 (14 February 2014)

"Monuments Men" (1hr 50min - Rated PG-13) has somehow, inexplicably and inaccurately, been tagged as part comedy, a charge that carries with it a wink-wink "acknowledgement" that it is somehow the A-Team with big stars. And with that comes the subliminal warning that the story is broad, the action overdone and the performances corny. Well, the part about big stars is accurate: George Clooney (who also directs), Matt Damon, Cate Blanchett, Bill Murray, John Goodman, Hugh Bonnevile _ and others (including Nick Clooney, George's father, in a neat cameo). Forget the rest. Comedic? No, never. Witty, yes, at times very. Based on the true story of "the greatest treasure hunt in history," the film is an action-drama focusing on an unlikely World War II platoon ordered by President Franklin Roosevelt to go into Germany to recover artistic masterpieces stolen by the Nazis and return them to their rightful owners. The most striking thing about the film is its tautness, both in how it's acted and edited. There is palpable tension because the fate of the characters is always in doubt, and the awfulness of warfare is handled deftly without hitting the audience over the head. Above all, director Clooney does a wonderful thing: he gives the audience credit for being intelligent. It's a good bet that at an early-rehearsal table read of the film's script, he urged the cast to play their roles in an understated, realistic way. And they do, across the board. Clooney the director handles Clooney the actor beautifully. In the film's linchpin scene, Clooney confronts a Nazi officer and with very few words, says what he needs to _ what we would all like to _ in very stark terms, using everyday metaphors to bring home what World War II, the Nazis and the need to protect civilization really meant to this, the greatest generation. This is a terrific film.