All The King's Men

Before you watch the movie, first watch this snippet of about 7 minutes. This is a speech that is given by Willie Stark (Sean Penn) when he first realizes that he is being played for, in the upcoming election. More importantly, he realizes somewhere in his head that he has what it takes to be Governor.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pw_uTjf6VPc&feature=related

Based on the 1946 novel by Robert Penn Warner of the same name, All The King’s Men tracks the life of Willie Stark who is married to a school teacher. An accident in his county where a school caves in due to poor construction moves him to take up the cause of ensuring standards. One thing leads to another and before you know it, he is running for governor.

But as mentioned earlier, he was only being played for the part to ensure that there is a vote split between the other chief competitors. The scheme fails thanks to some great campaigning by Stark and he wins the race. The rest of the story is Stark’s movement from being an up-country politics unfriendly person to one who climbs the learning curve of dirty politics at the speed of light. He moves into being a dark scheming character – continuing to fight for the deprived – but playing his cards like a pro.

The director, Steve Zaillian, is actually better known for his prowess in screenplay (Schindler’s List, Gangs of New York, Moneyball, The Millenium Trilogy) and has had several nominations in the category. But when it comes to direction, he had two, not so well known but decent movies to his credit before he made ATKM. Arguably, ATKM was his best effort to date. There are a lot of segments where you maybe a bit lost but the pieces fall together as the movie trudges along.

One can fault Zaillian for pace but as I have always said, there is a thin line between slow and intense and I thought Zaillian did a good job flirting with the line. What works for him are the right cuts that ensured that moves the unnecessary stuff out. And of course the screenplay that’s Zaillian’s forte anyways – rocks.

ATKM is otherwise an actor’s movie. Sean Penn, Jude Law, Kate Winslet, Mark Ruffalo, Anthony Hopkins, Patricia Clarkson & James Gandolfini. All Zaillian had to do was not screw up. And these 7 names would have done the rest. That’s exactly what happened. You will not get bored for certain. But as warned earlier – slow. 7 on 10.

Watch the trailer at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hV_Yad1i36w