The Monuments Men is the fact-based story of a group of civilian art experts that were dispatched by the United States government to save stolen artwork from the Nazi regime and return the pieces to rightful owners near the end of World War II. This group became known as the "Monuments Men" and miraculously recovered thousands of pieces of art that were hidden in various salt mines across Germany and France. Though there were bigger victories in World War II, these men were able to salvage priceless works of art that would've gone forever had it not been for their courage and resilience to recover them from Hitler's grasp.
You have to commend Clooney because he tried so hard to make an excellent film, it just didn't come to fruition. The real-life story behind this film is fascinating and Clooney has such a genuine enthusiasm for the material, but that enthusiasm doesn't fix the pacing and story problems that hold this film back. The film doesn't even clock in it at two hours yet it still has trouble remaining compelling. There's an almost 45 minute-stretch in the middle of the film that is almost entirely pointless. You get ample scenes with Damon failing to get any answers from Blanchett's French curator as to where the stolen art could be because she doesn't trust Americans, Murray and Bob Balaban bitching at each other with really feeble attempts at humor and Clooney sitting back at the base talking to the other members of a team on a radio. Some of that may sound entertaining in principle, but none of it was even remotely interesting to watch and did next to nothing to advance the story.
Despite possessing a cast with numerous Academy Award-winners, The actors don't really do much to elevate the material. Outside of Clooney himself, the rest of the cast kind of just coasts through their roles. It almost seems like they only committed to this project to help out their pal Clooney get his project off the ground. Damon and Blanchett haven't looked this bored on screen since Stuck on You and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull respectively. Not even the always lively Murray and Goodman seemed to put much effort into their performances. I don't know if was the scattered script that didn't allow any of the actors to have a significant amount of screen time or they were just burnt out from their other recent roles, but many of this cast full of talented actors were not in their zones for The Monuments Men.
Clooney's infectious passion for the subject matter and a pretty engaging beginning and ending make The Monuments Men somewhat worth the watch. It's so frustrating that this film isn't something special given the amount of talented veteran actors that were involved in this project. I hope this story gets retold in a future film. This piece of relatively unknown and amazing history deserves a more thoughtful, entertaining and fluid telling than it gets in The Monuments Men.
3/5 Stars
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