Frank Longo Member since Nov 18th 2003 86673 posts
Sat Dec-12-09 09:38 PM
39. "It was biopic-by-numbers at best, schmaltzy at worst." In response to In response to 0
The slo-mo at the end got laughs in my theater. All of the characters are one-note-- outside of one or two moments of charm, Mandela is straight-faced the whole film. Damon has very little to do. The character I liked the most was Mandela's female assistant.
The writing was cliched and abysmal. The film looked nice... but man, if you don't know rugby, the rugby scenes will be incomprehensible to you. Also, the film covers NONE of Mandela's achievements outside of his love of rugby. In fact, it makes him seem like all other issues of state are secondary to rugby, which can't be true.
It was better than Gran Torino, I'll give it that much. But Clint has moved away from caring about characters and dialogue, and only cares about shadows and symbolism.