Disappointing

Rating: 4/10 (7 August 2014)

Rented this movie from Red Box at my grocery store. Glad I did not pay a theater price. I read several negative reviews and found they nailed the defects I noted while watching--too many humorous one-liners in a serious story, irrelevant references in subtitles to WWII events, e.g., Omaha Beach, Battle of the Bulge, which had no tie-in to the plot; one- dimensional characters, silly musical score; caricatured Germans, Russians, even the French. Did Cate Blanchett portray a real person, or was she just the romantic episode Hollywood requires even in a film about soldier-boys.
I was an art history major as an undergraduate so I was sympathetic to the plight of rescuing great art stolen by the Nazis. I revere the Ghent altarpiece and Michelangelo's Madonna and Child, but I fear those who do not share my feelings may not have been convinced they were worthy of the deaths of allied soldiers.
Many years ago I saw "The Train," which told a similar story about a train full of French art loaded on a train headed for Germany. The story was probably apocryphal or a liberal twist from the story of the recovery of stolen art, but it starred two great actors, Burt Lancaster and Paul Scofield and was told in a consistent time-line in which time was of the essence, tension unrelieved except for poignant moments of knowing looks between Burt and Jeanne Moreau, whom I confess I adore. No time for romance. In that movie, only the German colonel (Scofield) appreciated the paintings, the others just knew they were trying to save the national treasure. Therein lay the power of the film, its understatement. "The Monuments Men," by contrast, kept saying they were saving 1000 years of culture, not really convincing me that these shallow characters really cared.
In fact, the trailer was better than the film because you get the point and use your imagination to fill in all the parts that should have been in the script. Although Clooney is credited with the screenplay, I have the feeling that too many cooks spoiled the broth. I used to think Clooney was just a pretty face until I saw a few memorable performances; now I think he is just a pretty face.