An above average dramatic film

Rating: 6/10 (13 October 2015)

I was very interested in seeing this film and I have finally seen it and it is an alright film but ends up being disappointing. The premise of this film is set in world war 2 where it shows an Olympian turned war hero attempt to survive a Japanese prisoner of war camp. I am a fan of jack o connell and this is definitely his best ever performance. He really did a good job of making you care about him and really feeling for his character in this predicament that no human being should go through. Domnhall gleeson is his army buddy and he was good in the movie and their relationship was the first relationship I cared about in the film. The villain was pretty good as well and you really don't like in this film which means he is doing his job right. However, there wasn't any other interesting supporting characters in the camp which doesn't help the film. The story of them initially trying to survive on the raft was very interesting as well as his time in the Olympics. However, the film derails when he gets to the camp and the film really slows down and it just doesn't hit the emotional levels that it needs. The script is okay with some of the drama working for the film but some of it just doesn't hit as much as it wants to and it hurts the film. The style of the film looks beautiful and all the cinematography is great and makes you feel with o connell. But as mentioned before the pacing of the film is a bit all over the place and it hurts the structure of the film. Overall this is a decent film but I wanted it to be better.