George Clooney's fifth directorial effort, The Monuments Men also sees the actor co-write and take the lead role, adapting the true story of a group of art historians, architects, and museum curators tasked with finding and rescuing pieces of fine art before they are taken and destroyed by Hitler and his forces during World War II. While he has shown great promise behind the camera before, this film falters slightly, despite having a strong cast, which includes Matt Damon, John Goodman, Bill Murray, Jean DuJardin, and Cate Blanchett, and equally strong premise behind it.
Wasting no time in getting to the meat of the story (the opening credits act as a punchy and lively introduction to the premise and cast of characters), the first cracks in the story start to show early on, with The Monuments Men being split up. From here, the narrative becoming a series of incidents involving the separate groups that most of the time don't have any bearing on the overall plot, acting more like throw away character pieces. This structure makes the first act, and much of the second, a slog to get through, the pacing slowing to a crawl more than once. There is quite a lot of humour on display here, and Clooney can't really strike the right balance between the comedic and the dramatic, leading to some awkward and glaring tonal shifts. There is also a distinct lack of a villain to rally against. Sure, the Nazis, but there is no central figure to focus on, and the introduction of a Russian equivalent to the Monuments Men, taking the priceless art for themselves as a means of reparation to all those who fell to the German army, is ultimately wasted. The film's message of a cultures identity and history being important is noble, and more often than not it is handled well, but once or twice you do feel like it's being forced down your throat. That all being said, it is an entertaining watch, but also very frustrating since you know Clooney has do much better, with the likes of Confessions of a Dangerous Mind and Ides of March under his belt.
Unlike other ensemble movies, no one seems relegated to the sidelines, with all the actors having something substantial to do. As I've said, this movie has assembled an extremely strong cast, and while I can't go as far as calling their performances bad, all of them don't break much of a sweat here. Clooney and Damon are basically playing Danny Ocean and Linus Caldwell in soldiers uniforms (in their scenes together, I was half expecting Brad Pitt to walk in, munching on jerky), and Blanchett is slightly wasted, doing nothing more than pushing the plot forward when it seems to stall. Murray fares much better, striking a nice odd couple relationship with Bob Balaban which never fails to raise a chuckle, and John Goodman is John Goodman, so I will not hear a bad word said about him. DuJardin and Hugh Bonneville also put in fine performances, especially Bonneville, whose arc proves to make the biggest impact on the overall story.
Getting past some of its flaws, The Monuments Men can be extremely entertaining, with an impressive cast making up for most of its problems.
