Well crafted, well meaning, yet flat.

Rating: 10/10 (27 February 2003)

I tried very hard to like this film. It was just near impossible to engage with it. As far as art direction, compostion and filmmaking, the film was well polished but dreadfully standard. This left the task of creating a enjoyable or powerful movie to the story and the acting, both of which were... well, flat. Realizing that the story was based on real events it doesn't seem fair to criticize the story itself, but stagnated flow made me wonder why the story really needed to be told in this format. The main character goes from respectible to subdued to squashed to positively disheveled, and yet there seemed to be no reason why He should be cared about any more than the other thousands who died. The man who acted the lead did a tremendous job of portraying the role but it wasn't enough to make the character truly compelling or interesting. He just went through the whole film with the same expression, the same emotion, this dreadful... sameness. It made me wonder why he had to be saved, when there were others around him who at least seemed to do something, feeling something, have some will or humanity.
Partly this is just a reaction to the hype, which i thought it didn't live up to. Other user comments praising this film demonstrate that there are two sides to every issue, and many different points of view, most people seem to enjoy it. skipping it then might very well mean missing a movie that you will enjoy immensely. I personally found little in the film to keep me interested, engaged, caring, or even entertained, and i'm not really sure why it won the the Palms D'Ors, other than PC reasons relating to its subject matter. Just my personal view, but i really could have put my time and money to better use.