A disappointment for this huge fan of the book

Rating: 6/10 (26 December 2014)

I have been looking forward to this movie, having loved the book and admiring Louis Zamperini like so many others. While the movie was well-crafted and well-acted, it failed to blow me over emotionally. It's one movie that could have been longer, while at the same time tightening up the POW sequence by at least 15 minutes.
The director, editors and committee of screenwriters (never a good sign) cut out too much of the back story of what shaped Louie's character as a kid, and (critically) his PTSD and religious awakening at the end. I know this would have made Unbroken a three- hour movie but Louie's story deserved a fuller treatment. Instead, the character is turned into a Christ-like vessel of suffering for his fellow prisoners, rather than a flesh-and-blood person, although he seems oddly unscathed by the ordeal when he reunites with his family.
I was hoping for a "Spielberg" experience to leave me in tears, and it just didn't happen. Too bad.