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As a director, George Clooney’s approach has always been to take stylistic cues from his inspirations. In Good Night and Good Luck, he channeled early television with his minimalist black and white photography, utilizing long takes and subtle performances to make it feel less edited and more journalistic. In The Monuments Men, Clooney is channeling a type of ensemble World War II film that hasn’t been produced for decades. Homage is paid to classic Hollywood, calling back to a time when war pictures weren’t all somber and shameful. All the ingredients are there. So why doesn’t The Monuments Men work as well as it should?

The variety of the large cast is great. The combination of leading men (Clooney, Matt Damon), international stars (Cate Blanchett, Jean Dujardin) and craggy character players (Bill Murray, John Goodman) make this feel like the kind of ensemble that could only exist in the era of Casablanca. Alexandre Desplat’s (The Tree of Life) score evokes war pictures of the ‘40s to give the movie even more authentic flavour. But the movie still feels empty.

Maybe Clooney failed to realize that the success of those classic war films was about more than style and casting. Unlike Clooney’s previous success with Good Night or Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, I just never felt like Clooney was trying very hard at anything. Charm can only get you so far, and it always feels like he’s coasting on the charisma of his actors and the admittedly intriguing true story behind his script. There’s plenty to like here, but little to love.

The movie is at its weakest when Clooney gets didactic. On several occasions, characters soliloquize about the importance of art and why it must be protected. It’s so dumbed down. Of course culture is important. You don’t need to tell us once, let alone five times. Stick to the swashbuckling. We get it.

Published in Volume 68, Number 20 of The Uniter (February 13, 2014)