'The Monuments Men' (12A)

 

**/*** (2.5 stars)

In the closing months of the Second World War, a specialist team is dispatched to Europe to track down and recover thousands of pieces of art that the Nazis have been systematically collecting for Hitler’s planned ‘Fuhrer Museum’. Unaccustomed to warfare, this team of aging academics, artists and architects are deposited in France with the mammoth task of uncovering centuries of culture.

The main issue I have with this film is that is it, simply put, boring: the characters are unfulfilled and pretty much interchangeable; there is no feeling of threat; and moments that I felt were meant to shock or move the audience lacked the impact required. The all-star cast, comprising of George Clooney and Matt Damon in the lead roles, is more distracting than engaging – the whole time, I was aware of the actor instead of the role they were meant to be playing, and again this is largely down the main seven men being underwritten. Cate Blanchett stars as the only woman in the film, and her role is completely undermined in a scene where she tries to get Matt Damon to sleep with her, stating ‘This is Paris’, as if that would be some kind of excuse for adultery. There is a scene in which the team assemble at the Battle of the Bulge, a famous and bloody stand-off in a forest in the depths of winter. The trouble is, two episodes of the Band of Brothers series is based on this conflict, and the whole time Clooney and co. were walking around in the snowy forest, I couldn’t help but think about how great Band of Brothers is and how much I would have rather be watching that as opposed to The Monuments Men. There were some moments that made me smile, and a couple of the relationships that emerge between the team are quite touching but the lack of character development makes it hard to connect with what’s on screen.

So why such a ‘generous’ rating? Well, it isn’t a bad film as such, just disappointingly average and rather boring. It isn’t badly made – all the scenes are well framed; the acting is adequate; it looks authentic; and it brings to light a different dynamic to the very familiar World War Two story. It’s just so unfulfilling! I didn’t have any expectations when I want into the cinema – I’d seen a couple of trailers, and seen the all-star cast list, but apart from that I didn’t know how the story would unfurl… But I was just bored. The two characters I was most engaged by were (SPOILER ALERT) disposed of quite quickly, and I couldn’t help cringing at some of the more corny speeches that were uttered in the forefront of a swelling, emotive soundtrack. I kid you not, there is even a scene wherein George Clooney delivers a speech about saving art and culture and all the rest of it over a radio to the rest of his team, who are sitting in the room next door! It was just ridiculous, and set the tone for the rest of the film.  But, despite this, it isn’t a bad film…

I’m not sure why I’m trying so adamantly to defend it as a piece of cinema – maybe I’m just trying to talk myself into enjoying it more, or discovering a hidden layer that I had somehow missed? I guess you should just go along and make up your own mind.