Enjoyable Caper Movie in the Tradition of "The Great Escape"

Rating: 7/10 (12 June 2014)

George Clooney's retelling of an audacious plot by a group of aging art specialists to rescue stolen art from Nazi-occupied Europe is highly entertaining, so long as viewers don't take it too seriously. With its jaunty theme music (by Alexandre Desplat), devil-may-care theme and tongue-in-cheek humor, it is a movie with its roots in classic World War II dramas such as John Sturges' THE GREAT ESCAPE (1963). Structurally speaking, THE MONUMENTS MEN is very similar - a group of representatives of assorted nations take on the full might of the Nazi army (as well as some obstructive American and British officers) and manage to achieve their goals through a combination of cunning, luck and sheer brazenness. THE MONUMENTS MEN is a little propagandist in tone; there is little need, for instance, for a shot at the end of the film showing the American flag, a "present" left for the advancing Russian army once the monuments men have rescued some stolen treasure. Nonetheless the film's theme is highly pertinent in view of the destruction wrought to many irreplaceable art treasures in Iraq and Syria in recent years: one hopes that similar groups will be formed so as to save some of them. The actors enjoy themselves in their roles, notably Matt Damon as James Granger, an American officer speaking incomprehensible French, and Bob Balaban and Bill Murray as a pair of perpetually warring art specialists., Cate Blanchett turns in an agreeable cameo as French spy - with a convincing accent. Definitely watchable, so long as audiences don't take the subject-matter too seriously.