The Monuments Men

In 1943, art conservator Lt. Frank Stokes (George Clooney) organizes a group of Monuments Men to safeguard Europe’s artistic and cultural treasures from the ravages of war. Working with the French resistance, the group must thwart the Nazi effort to first horde and later destroy priceless works of art.

History is full of untold and undertold stories, and the Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives program is one such tale. But Clooney, who also directed, wrote, and produced, does a disservice to the subject here. From a sloppy script with inept pacing and underwritten characters to a bewildering tone, The Monuments Men is also Hollywood history at its worst.

This disappointment doubles in light of the supremely talented cast. Matt Damon, Bill Murray, and John Goodman are all part of Stokes’ team while Cate Blanchett plays a fictionalized Rose Valland, a curator working behind the Nazis’ backs in occupied France. No one does a particularly bad job here, but the actors fail to elevate these characters above the level of mere functionaries. The only one with any complexity is Donald Jefferies (Hugh Bonneville), a formerly alcoholic British officer in search of redemption. It’s also telling that despite the comic credibility of the cast, the funniest lines go not to Goodman or Murray, but to Bob Balaban.

Characterization, however, is only one of several significant problems. The film has a hard time deciding what’s at stake. This is acknowledged in the narrative itself: the morality of risking lives for the sake of art and culture is debated several times. And while the film wants us to conclude that the sacrifices made were worthwhile, it doesn’t do nearly enough to win the audience over to that position. This shortcoming is abetted by the film’s often-goofy tone, which makes its more serious moments seem inauthentic and jarring. Imagine if the framing device from Saving Private Ryan was applied to a surviving member of The Dirty Dozen, and you’ll get a sense of why this doesn’t work.

With laggy pacing and wildly ahistorical Amerocentrism, The Monuments Men leaves a lot else to be desired. It isn’t a total loss – the cinematography is sharp, and the film does raise awareness of an overlooked subject – but for Clooney and everyone else involved, The Monuments Men is a monumental disappointment.

6.25/10