Starring: Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett
TMG Scale 4.0 (and being generous)
TMG says OMG. This might have actually been a decent film but it needed at least an hour and a half on the cutting room floor. Are there no editors left in Hollywood? Taraji P. Henson was very impressive as “Queenie” Benjamin’s adoptive mother but she was lost in a sea of acetate mean to for the cutting room floor. TMG can just say thank you to whomever invented the fast forward button on his DVD player. We truly feel sorry for anyone that slipped into a coma watching this film in a theatre.
Great acting and interesting story of a man who is born old and ages young does not save a film. And this film had them both and top-notch acting as well. The scenes and the emotion were there. There were touching elements. But like Bill Clintons 1992 acceptance speech, it just went on way too long. All elements are important to great films. Imagine Titanic but filmed on a pontoon boat in the Ozarks. Imagine Saving Private Ryan with a scratchy sound track. Imagine Pulp Fiction without the witty dialogue. This film really had it moments….it just had way too many minutes that neither advanced the plot nor had anything to do with anything.
Skip this movie and go rent Forever Young with Mel Gibson or even The Majestic with Jim Carrey. You will get the same cool, eerie but warm feeling, but in half the time.