Written
November 21, 2012
Interesting, but...
I couldn't tell exactly what the movie was focusing on. The most interesting characters and plot line, all related to the passage of the 13th Amendment, took a back seat to close-ups of Daniel Day-Lewis eerily channeling our 16th president, while droning on and on in these exaggerated monologues better suited to the Broadway stage. This movie is at least 30 minutes too long; it's ponderous and heavy-handed. We counted at least three "endings". The only pluses were Janusz Kaminski's cinematography and the production design under the direction of Rick Carter. Kudos too to hair & makeup, costumes by Joanna Johnston, and set decoration by Jim Erickson and Peter T. Frank. Daniel Day-Lewis is a sure bet for a Best Actor nomination. But the story itself is bloated. and may have worked better as an HBO mini-series.
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15
out of
24
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