THE MONUMENTS MEN

When it comes to history, far too many of us don’t understand it. We don’t understand it because we either we never learned it, or we forgot it. The unfortunate side effect – besides the old adage of being doomed to repeat our own mistakes – is that we tend not to value or appreciate what we don’t understand. We put it in danger of being destroyed, and sometimes even go about destroying it ourselves. In light of this, it’s easy to see why the value of history needs to be spelled out for us from time to time…

…though perhaps not spelled out quite so overtly.

In the late stages of WWII, Frank Stokes (George Clooney) goes to the top American military brass with a mission proposal. The human stakes of WWII are well-known at this point, but Stokes wants to underline the cultural stakes. He presses leaders of the armed forces to sign off on a very specific mission: to protect and retrieve art and artifacts that Hitler has put in harm’s way or flat-out stolen for himself.

Upon the mission’s approval, Stokes assembles a team – none of who are what one would call a 1-A soldier.

James Granger specializes in classic art (Matt Damon). Richard Campbell is an architect (Bill Murray). Walter Garfield is a sculpture scholar (John Goodman). Preston Savitz is an opera director (Bob Balaban). They are joined by a French national, a Major from the English army, and a German refugee to serve as translator (Jean Dujardin, Hugh Bonneville, and Dimitri Leonidas, respectively).

After the men pass basic training, their mission is laid out. Hitler has commissioned a Führer Museum, and plans it to be home to hundreds of Europe’s most important pieces of art. It’s up to The Monuments Men to stop that from happening. In addition, they are to specifically retrieve the Ghent Altarpiece; an important Catholic relic which has gone missing after being packed up for its own protection.

To achieve all of this, the unit is split up into teams, with Granger being sent to Paris to see what leads he can get there. It’s in Paris that he meets Claire Simone (Cate Blanchett), a curator at The National Museum. When Granger meets her, he discovers that she is leery of the entire mission. After all, The Americans aren’t the first people she’s heard declare an interest in preserving and protecting the art. Every other person to make such a claim has been in it more for their own interest than that of the art – what could possibly make The Americans any different?

There is such thing as telling a great story, but not expressing what makes it so great. If you’ve ever met a great storyteller, you know that they could tell you about buying their morning coffee in a way that makes it sound like an Indiana Jones adventure. They hit words in a certain way, engage with the audience just so, and intuitively know the beats that need to be hit to deliver the most emotional impact. Without these flourishes, even the most heroic of tales can turn into a series of “and-then”s.

Case in point, MONUMENTS MEN.

The straight story of what these men were trying to do is both noble and moving. They have an acute understanding of what has brought us to this point in history. They know it because they have studied where we came from. They have pored over treasures and artifacts and seen them as the fingerprints and footprints of who we once were. What’s more, they know that the only way future scholars will be able to gain this same acute understanding is if these footprints and fingerprints remain for them to study too. That they were able to convince military command to go along with this mission in the face of such violence and sacrifice is amazing in its own right. What the men went through to carry-out the mission is downright inspiring. Unfortunately, that straight story is muddied when Clooney goes about telling it on the screen.

More than once, we listen as Clooney narrates some of the film’s most lofty ideals. As he does, one feels one’s heart being stirred – which isn’t surprising. Clooney has a cadence and conviction in his voice that allows him to sell ice chests to Eskimos. However, Clooney can’t narrate every scene in the film…though as the film’s director, you’d believe he’d find a way. After all, if there’s a companion to the cadence and conviction of his voice, it’s the cleverness and clarity of his vision directing films like GOOD NIGHT AND GOOD LUCK and CONFESSIONS OF A DANGEROUS MIND. this time though, his cleverness and clarity is fogged by poor pacing and emotional manipulation. Scenes that should crackle go stale, with actors who usually demonstrate amazing timing suddenly feeling out-of-step. When one considers the talent on display, this lack of rhythm feels especially puzzling.

As for the emotional manipulation, I look to moments when Alexandre Desplat’s score swells up to underline the nobility of the mission (in case we’d ever forgotten). In these moments, it feels like Clooney didn’t trust audiences to get caught up in the moment as he’d drawn it up. Instead, to drive home the importance and impact of these moments, he has a trumpet weep out a phrase one feels like they’d hear on The History Channel. The lilting score and lingering camera doesn’t make the moments feel any more important. If anything, it makes them feel more common.

It pains me to say that too, because there are interesting things within the film. The movie is unique in the way it wraps a war story around discussion of some of mankind’s most important cultural artifacts. The film might not trust itself enough to drive home the message, but there is something tremendously moving about seeing a man in uniform awed and inspired just standing in the same room as a Michelangelo sculpture. Likewise, there are few things in the world that bring more joy than watching Bill Murray and Bob Balaban play off each other. They say so much with so few words, and have a chemistry that the rest of the film so sorely needs. Perhaps if the rhythm and wit of their scenes were allowed to trickle down through the rest of the film, I’d be singing a different tune. Alas…

One should be wary of MONUMENTS MEN, but one shouldn’t sidestep it entirely. In a time where cultural contributions to society seem to be struggling to retain their importance, it underlines just how valuable these cultural contributions can be. They are not just notes heard through headphones, or statues placed in courtyards. They are signposts to future generations; signposts of who we are, and who we were. When the going gets tough, these signposts are often the first thing to be sacrificed. Films like this underline the cost of such sacrifices.

It’s an amazing story…even in the hands of a less-than-amazing storyteller.

Matineescore: ★ ★ 1/2 out of ★ ★ ★ ★

What did you think? Please leave comments with your thoughts and reactions on MONUMENTS MEN.