A technically good film, but fell flat for me

Rating: 7/10 (14 September 2015)

Russell Crowe is great in this film about personal loss, the horror and futility of war and about friendship that transcends borders and sides. Everything was spot on: acting, directing, sets, editing, soundtrack. Yet it all felt artificial and heavy handed, akin to The Hundred- Foot Journey, if you saw it, albeit with a completely different subject.
There was some interesting commentary about why people fight in wars and what they feel and do when the wars are seemingly over. Also one can learn more about an almost forgotten part of history, when Turkey was still the Ottoman Empire and was fighting Australians and New Zealanders, then Greeks while the British were lording around. But the rest... I felt like someone was taking feelings in bulk and throwing them at me, containers and all, like so many brick in one's face.
Suffering? We haz it! Stoic hopefulness? Tons of it! Cardboard villains? One for each occasion. Love story that made little sense in the plot, especially at the end? Yup. And so on and so on. If it weren't for Crowe, who acted brilliantly, I would have considered this film a failure. As such, I would have to give it an average rating, although I personally didn't like it.
Bottom line: it felt like a movie made by an accountant.