I really had no interest in seeing Lincoln. The trailers made it look like a tiresome biopic, with lots of speechifying, and amber glow. Of course I was sure it would be well made hagiography, but still pretty yawn inducing. And (yes this joke has been made elsewhere) it seemed to feature a disturbing lack of Vampire Killing.
Anyway, my dad wanted to go see it, and I was pleasantly surprised. About two-thirds of the film is a procedure piece about how messy it was to actually pass the 13th amendment, with even Lincoln stoppoing to buying votes in the name of freeing the slaves. This part of the film even has nice sense of humor about itself, subtly implying that Lincoln was a bit of a blowhard with all his speechifying. Had the film stayed focus on this part of the story I would recommend Lincoln unequivicolly. Howver it doesn't.
Any time the film goes back to Lincoln's family life it comes to a screeching halt. His wife is pretty much portrayed as a nagging shrew out of the Adrien Balboa school of spouses, and there's a whole subplot about his son wanting to enlist that could have been excised completely. All that though doesn't compare to the laugh out loud awfulness of the ending. We all know that Lincoln dies, so its not like you have to include it. Particularly since the film really just focuses on a few months out of his presidency. But whatever, the way the film shows the end almost completely undoes the rest of it. First Lincoln's last lines in the film are (as he's leaving for the theatre) "I guess I have to be going. But I'd really like to stay." It then ends with lincoln bathed in a soft light and giving his second inagural. Basically undercutting all the work the film did up to that point in its effort to humanize him. Seriously its groan inducingly bad.
On the other hand we do get Tommy Lee Jones looking like this:
So its not all bad.
Anyway, my dad wanted to go see it, and I was pleasantly surprised. About two-thirds of the film is a procedure piece about how messy it was to actually pass the 13th amendment, with even Lincoln stoppoing to buying votes in the name of freeing the slaves. This part of the film even has nice sense of humor about itself, subtly implying that Lincoln was a bit of a blowhard with all his speechifying. Had the film stayed focus on this part of the story I would recommend Lincoln unequivicolly. Howver it doesn't.
Any time the film goes back to Lincoln's family life it comes to a screeching halt. His wife is pretty much portrayed as a nagging shrew out of the Adrien Balboa school of spouses, and there's a whole subplot about his son wanting to enlist that could have been excised completely. All that though doesn't compare to the laugh out loud awfulness of the ending. We all know that Lincoln dies, so its not like you have to include it. Particularly since the film really just focuses on a few months out of his presidency. But whatever, the way the film shows the end almost completely undoes the rest of it. First Lincoln's last lines in the film are (as he's leaving for the theatre) "I guess I have to be going. But I'd really like to stay." It then ends with lincoln bathed in a soft light and giving his second inagural. Basically undercutting all the work the film did up to that point in its effort to humanize him. Seriously its groan inducingly bad.
On the other hand we do get Tommy Lee Jones looking like this:
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