The Monuments Men

In all the years of movies about World War II, we have never ever heard about The Monuments Men.  It is indeed surprising that such a wonderful story was the world’s best kept secret till September 2009 when Robert M Edsel published his book - The Monuments Men: Allied Heroes, Nazi Thieves, and the Greatest Treasure Hunt in History (http://www.monumentsmen.com).

After this, it was a matter of time before someone snapped up the deal for the rights to the movie.  And that turned out to be one George Timothy Clooney who along with reputed actor writer Grant Heslov (Argo) has written the movie for screen.  However, the disappointing part about The Monuments Men, if anything, was the extremely slow and lackluster screenplay.

The first half of the Monuments Men is slow enough to make you yawn a few times and actually search desperately to a director called George Clooney who was responsible for that fantastic movie called Good Night & Good Luck.  MM starts with Lt. Stokes (George Clooney) making a less than impressive presentation about valuable artefacts that are in danger thanks to the Führer.

Hitler had grandiose plans for making a Führer Museum and was taking possession of a few million pieces of art from across Europe.  In fact, in a decree, he even asked all the art to be destroyed in case of his death.  That is where Lt. Stokes came in with a plea to The President so that these works of art can either be saved from destruction or recovered from the Nazi safe holds.

MM follows the story of a team of eight including Stokes.  Director of the Museum of Modern Art – James Granger (Matt Damon), Architect Richard Campbell (Bill Murray), Sculptor Walter Garfield (John Goodman), Aspiring Pilot and artisan Jean Claude Clermont (Jean Dujardin), Donald Jeffries (Hugh Bonneville), Art Connoisseur Preston Savitz (Bob Balaban) and a German expat Private Sam Epstein (Dimitri Leonidas).

The most important cog in the wheel, however, would be Claire Simms (Cate Blanchett).  Claire is a French woman who is perceived to be pro-Nazi because she is forced to work for Viktor Stahl (Justus von Dohnányi) a Nazi Officer in Paris.  The relationship between Granger and Simms, eventually leads the Monuments Men to most of their treasures.  Luckily for us, the story does not build into an unnecessary romance between the two.

Clooney gets the casting bang on right and no one can question that.  The story is also simply stunning.  But, other than the character of Donald Jeffries and Preston Savitz, there seems to be little or no intensity in the delivery.  Most of which has to do with the boring narrative.  Despite that, Cate Blanchett stamps her authority as probably the finest actresses of our day.

Monuments Men had all the ingredients needed for a mind blowing World War II movie.  One that could have been spoken about for a long long time.  Instead, we have a movie that is worth watching once purely for the story that you must also read about in the link provided.  Sadly, this one will not find itself at the top 10 for the year.  6 on 10.

Watch the trailer on http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi4112492569/?ref_=tt_ov_vi