By Alex Bentley
12.25.14
From the start, the tone of the film just feels a bit off. One can sense the feelings Jolie is trying to evoke, but the way she stages scenes never really works. For instance, the opening sequence has Zamperini’s plane in the middle of a ferocious air battle, but there is a curious shortage of suspense.
Often that lack of drama seems to stem from the actors’ failing to use the right inflection to elicit the appropriate emotion. But that’s not the result of bad acting but rather a deficiency in their lines.
Other times Jolie pushes too hard for dramatic elements instead of letting them evolve naturally, an unfortunate consequence of adapting a story like this into a movie; a director just don’t have the time to give the full background for certain events. Regardless of the constraints of filmmaking, the first half of the film just never gels.
CULTURE MAP HOUSTON
