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DokBrowne [ 9.0 ]
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Exceptional film, impeccably written, using the narrow focus of the 13th amendment passage to fashion an indirect biography of Lincoln's life, personality, and legacy. Preferable to the ordinary chronological cram-it-all-in format of most film biographies, this one seems to cover all of Lincoln's interesting material while fascinatingly examining the grueling process of affecting major change in American government, even leaving kind of a bittersweet afterglow in its suggestion that the tactics and perseverance of Lincoln and his team are no longer viable/plausible in modern politics...Daniel Day-Lewis can add another for-the-ages iconic performance to his stature as one among the finest actors in film history. He inhabits Lincoln as wholly and rivetingly as he did Plainview in "There Will Be Blood", yet how opposing their natures. A sprawling ensemble provides passionate, if only minor assistance, though special mention belongs to David Strathairn and especially Tommy Lee Jones, employing his fiercely intelligent bulldog specialty for comic relief, triumphant bravado, and even silent moments of hesitation.
The only real weak point of the movie - can you guess, it's Spielberg - is of course the ending. I forgot until much later that this is classic Spielbergian folly. Once again he can't resist going too far with his sentimentality, this time forcing a play-through of Lincoln's assassination rather than concluding at any of the nicely implied moments leading up to it (him walking down the hall to attend the play would have been just fine; not the most original of subtle endings, but better). The thing is, it's highly truncated yet still expects us to reel in devastation from it. An ineffective, but not ruinous, conclusion to a marvelously sophisticated act of historical entertainment; Spielberg's best since "Munich", I'd say, and belated redemption for failed identical twin predecessor "Amistad"
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| Weighted Rating | : 7.2 |
| No. Ratings | : 3 | |
| No. Reviews | : 1 | |
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