Product: All the King's Men [Blu-ray] (2007)
Rating: 3.0
A political tragedy
Sean Penn plays the part of a man who is elected governor of the state of Louisiana by promising poor people food, roads, schools, and other things they have been denied by crooked politicians. Unfortunately, once he gets into office he becomes the most crooked politician of them all. Jude Law is the reporter who watches him become governor and then joins his staff, becoming a part of the fraud and corruption. This movie has terrific potential and combines a brilliant novel and a stellar cast, but unfortunately it misses the mark by having a script which plays the same note throughout. There is an inexorable march towards a tragic end. There is no comic relief, no change of tone, only a steady drumroll toward disaster. There is an emotional sameness to it throughout the film which keeps it from becoming the outstanding movie which its makers intended it to be.