Yawn

Rating: 4/10 (6 April 2013)

Let's see. I've seen comments like shallow, slow, inaccurate, and so on.
Well, yes.
The instant I hear anyone associated with a film start talking about a character's "arc", run for the hills. For that is exactly what I did NOT see.
The novelty of rush to production was beyond evident here. At the risk of dredging up a very bad moment in history, this reminded me of 9/11 in reverse. Instead of watching a suspense thriller (after all, this is the movies and a certain amount of acceptance towards suspension of disbelief has to be, well, accepted), I felt like I was watching a slow destruction of history, in backwards deconstruction. I could not decide if I should get behind the characters and this so called "arc" (I did say run for the hills when you hear that word), or the historical unveiling of events, or just the spectacle.
When the movie ended, I was unable to get behind any of these.
Let's make it simple. Disgruntled employee rises above. Hang hat on premise for 2/3rds of the story. Sorry, worn out premise that fell on its face here.
A good script and good story telling backed by solid characters makes for good flicks. This had none of them. If it had been told in documentary form, it might have stood a chance. That this thing was up for best film of the year is a testament to the fickleness of human nature to back the wrong horse because it might have had an interesting pedigree. In this case, the pedigree was a historical event. This horse needs to be given over to the humane society and delivered to a nice family with a pasture, which is where it should be retired to.
PS, because extra additions are now part of a film's experience (DVD), I must add... when the materials focus on things like "being proud of" or "strove for accuracy" or such things... run for more hills. I find films that are worthy stand on their own with great writing, great stories, great direction, essentially greatness which none of this had. The most memorable take-away of watching this is when one remembers the phrase "they are taking themselves way too seriously". When the work stands, little needs to be said. When productions take themselves too seriously, keep running for them thar hills. This effort took itself way too seriously, down to the extras.