All the King's Men (2006)

The Penn Is Mightier Than The Bored

Judgment is frequently tainted by expectation, and clearly, high expectations caused many viewers to mug this splendid movie, or simply miss what makes it great. The problem, of course, is the iconic nature of the source material. The life of Huey "Kingfish" Long, Governor of Louisiana and radical populist, (to say nothing of power-mad, corrupt manipulator), provides its foundation. Long was real Americana, a self-described "hick" that rose to power by speaking for the disenfranchised. The Robert Penn Warren novel, source of the story itself, is a classic, and easily one of the best political sagas in American literature. Unoccupied mansions, bald cypress swamps, and sweltering Louisiana summer nights evoke a prototypical sense of decadence and corruption; beautifully mirroring this tale of moral decay. Add an all-star cast and it's easy to see why audiences arrived at the theatre expecting The Bicycle Thief, or La Strada.

Sean Penn, as Stark - based on Long - is a difficult individual. Like many actors, thinking is his enemy. One has only to watch the appalling Into The Wild, which he directed, to understand this. When Penn thinks, he immediately jumps on a soapbox and grabs a bullhorn, so he can share his half-baked ideology with the masses. This was my greatest fear about ATKM, that Penn would use it as a "tutorial." Happily, he resists this impulse and simply disappears into the part, making it thoroughly believable. And boy does he have help! The amazing cast includes Jude Law, Anthony Hopkins, Kate Winslet, Mark Ruffalo, Particia Clarkson, James Gandolfini, and Kathy Baker - Baker is exceptional. The film does what films do best; it takes you to another place and time, depositing you in front of Town Hall to fend for yourself. Wonderful.

The story is told from the perspective of the Jude Law character, Jack Burden. Jack is an observer, one foot in, one foot out. His conflict, his torture, is the heart of this film. Alcoholism and despair make it possible for him to pretend he hasn't made a choice; that he is simply sitting on a fence. But everyone in this film is somewhere on the moral spectrum, even Stark is not entirely bad and Judge Irwin is not entirely good. It is the moral complexity of living in a gray world that sets these people adrift, and they are drawn into painful places. Law, a consistently underrated actor, is excellent throughout, as is Mark Ruffalo who wears his moral oblivion like an overcoat. "If you don't vote, you don't matter," says Stark, and he's right. Haunting words when one considers that even today very few Americans go to the trouble of picking their leaders.

An exceptionally well-made film with themes that never go out of style. Highly recommended. July 6, 2008

Two Hours Too Short

If you have not read the book, you could be excused for being terribly confused about plot, character motivation, and the need for side commentary. Jack's relationship with the Stantons (Adam and Anne)and their eventual relationship with Stark is hopelessly botched. It is as if these crucial characters were thrown in for atmosphere. The film captures none of the depth or emotional energy of the book. I just can't believe that Sadie Burke could be this miscast. Everything about this character is wrong. In my opinion, the greatest problem with this movie is that it tries to fit 4 hours of great story into 2. June 26, 2008

An all-too-real mirror held up to American politics

This is a tragically underrated film; the one significant deficiency is the changing time frame, advancing the narrative twenty years past Hughie Long's era and into the period of McCarthyism. To fully appreciate this movie, the viewer might first read R. Penn Warren's pulitizer prize novel. Warren always struggled with plot lines--and perhaps this version ties all the stray threads together a little too neatly. The point, however, is that all the plot changes work both dramatically and thematically--they're not gratuitous. A first class production with an amazing cameo by one of our greatest unknown actors Frederick Forrest as Willie's father. Those who think Penn is overacting here need to go back and see film clips of the verbose southern powerhouse governor in action; Penn nailed it. Watch the film a second time to see how he builds and builds--one of his best performances. If ever America needed this movie, it's now. June 21, 2008

Use subtitles and you'll be happy

Considering that half the dialogue is unintelligible use the English subtitles option and view this as a foreign film (I'm not joking). Southern accents aren't usually too difficult to understand if you are from elsewhere however the actors are either from England or Brooklyn and I'll bet even Southerners can't understand them. Give it a try and you'll see that the movie becomes a lot more enjoyable. June 14, 2008

Way underrated - and Penn is amazing!

I can understand some people thinking Penn's performance is too over-the-top, but I think they miss the point. He is intentionally over-the-top and plays it so perfect that I forget it's Sean Penn. The character is nothing like anything Penn has done before which means he is intentionally playing him that way. And the man the character was based on is renowned for being the most flamboyant politician ever to make it that far in politics - to this day!

I admit I had to watch the film twice to fully appreciate it, and upon my second viewing gained a better opinion of it. And I imagine when I watch it a third time (after a few months on other things) I may move my vote up to 5 stars.

The only thing holding back 5 stars right now is that I wasn't entirely satisfied with Jude Law's accent being "born and raised" in Louisiana. Yes, we all know he is English, but if he couldn't do the accent proper all the time (he does at times but not consistently) then why give him the role? To his credit, I can't imagine the role played by anybody else. I just wish he had a better coach or more time to master the accent.

Kate Winslet was beautiful and played her small role extremely well. I am almost surprised she would even take on such a small role. That's one actress without an ego problem.

Perhaps the best was (unsurprisingly) Anthony Hopkins, who always delivers. He played the big judge in an endearing and believable way. I won't spoil it by saying what happens to his character, suffice to say that I felt for him very much.

The score was not over played as so often is the case these days. The emotions were all natural and authentic from the story.

I think the director could have made some better editing choices, and perhaps polished the screenplay a bit but overall a fine film with excellent performances all around.

Certainly one of the most underrated - it deserves at least 4 stars compared to some of the crap around here with 5!

Give it a chance if you like thinking movies with meaning.

Oh, the special features are great too and they alone could push my rating to 5 stars. But I reserve that rating for perfect, flawless (in my mind) films. Sadly this one falls just short. May 29, 2008

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