Great story. Well made. Great cast. Bad script.

Rating: 5/10 (2 May 2014)

This is a great story. This is also a terrible screenplay. It runs like a filmed first draft. There's no sense of pacing, character and it's completely tone deaf. It's one disconnected scene after another. Some are comical in tone, others are somber, some are sentimental -- this one is a real head scratcher. It's a very well made film, with some great visuals and attention to period detail, but with such a discombobulated script it's a frustrating experience to sit through. Damon and Blanchett randomly meeting each other at an abandoned Jewish home, where he is returning a stolen painting is a contrivance the size of Europe. There are some deaths in the film that barely register as anything more than a reference by other characters - they are so sloppily done and dramatically inert. This film has the right cast, the right crew behind the camera, but this episodic script was not in any condition to be shot.