Disappointing dramatisation of epic true life tale

Rating: 4/10 (5 March 2016)

STAR RATING: ***** Saturday Night **** Friday Night *** Friday Morning ** Sunday Night * Monday Morning
As the Second World War looms on the horizon, Louis Zamperini (Jack O'Connoll) is an Olympic athlete, destined for greatness at the 1936 games in Berlin. On the outbreak of the war, he is serving in the Air Force when his plane is shot down, and he and his two co-pilots are forced to survive, alone and stranded in the sea in a dinghy for forty five days. But this is just the beginning of their nightmare, before they are captured and held as prisoners of war, by the vicious Watanabe (Miyavi) and his army. Against incredible odds, Louis finds the strength to persevere and emerge triumphant against Watanabe's cruelty.
If something is going to get a glossy, big screen Hollywood showboating, then far better that it's an inspirational, true life tale than just another loud, mindless 'popcorn' flick, with everything to offer the eye but nothing to offer the mind. And in the tale of Louis Zamperini, Angelina Jolie has certainly found a lot of interesting source material to derive from, charting not only his Olympic victory before the war, but also his drawn out struggles in the yacht, and then his trials and tribulations in the POW camp. Sadly, the execution is more Hallmark TV special than big screen epic.
Quite how Jolie has taken so much interesting, potential laden story fodder and made it all so unaffecting is just baffling. Everything just plays out so mundanely, with the most flat, stilted dialogue that makes it feel more suited to a smaller scale TV production than the big screen. Performances wise, it's pretty much all resting on O'Connoll, who carries everything (literally, at the end) and serves as the driving force of the film. He doesn't do a bad job, but you're always on eggshells waiting to see when his American accent falters and his native Derby comes piping back to the surface. That said, Miyavi also has presence as the cold, cruel commander.
Overall, though, this is just an unfortunate let down. **