|
ALL THE KING'S MEN Send This Review to a Friend
Yet another filmmaker has succumbed to the dangerous desire to remake a work that has already been honored and fondly remembered for its impact and expertise. Such projects are usually foolhardy, and writer-director Steve Zaillian’s plunge into redoing the 1950 Oscar-winning film based on Robert Penn Warren’s novel only makes one want to see the original again. Although the new “All the King’s Men” attempts to retell the saga reminiscent of the life of Louisiana demagogue Huey Long—in the film it is Willie Stark—the result is a hodgepodge of convoluted plot, sketchy characters and no convincing sense of the political and economic scene in which the action occurs.
The film was a high-profile presentation at the 2006 Toronto International Film Festival prior to its widespread commercial release.
Sean Penn plays Stark, and while he tears into the part with scenery-chewing intensity and some weird hair-styling, he is all surface bluster and no depth. That’s not only an acting problem. The same can be said of almost the entire film. The screenplay traces Stark from his nobody days through his desire to do good for the downtrodden, his unscrupulous rise and his morphing into a power-hungry politician who dupes the people. True to the fate of Long, Stark is ultimately assassinated.
But the film never inspires us to feel anything, whether for or against Stark, or for or against the other characters embroiled in the mess, including Jack Burden (Jude Law) a newspaperman who abandons his profession to become Stark’s aide; Anne Stanton (Kate Winslet), the lost love from the past; the disillusioned and used Adam Stanton (Mark Ruffalo); Sadie Burke (Patricia Clarkson), a major role all but reduced to nothingness; blackmailed Judge Irwin (Anthony Hopkins); Tiny Duffy (James Gandolfini in search of a southern accent), and Sugar Boy (Jackie Earle Haley), Stark’s ever-vigilant bodyguard and lackey.
The film is sometimes interesting in a peculiar sort of way. One’s attention is held at times, and at other times boredom sets in, but always there is the sinking feeling of a would-be serious work that is making plenty of noise and straining to be significant, but one that will be easily forgettable, save for its most patently ridiculous parts. A Columbia Pictures release.
|