Review of War Horse (2011) by William R — 23 Jan 2013

Typically for a script written by Richard Curtis, for the most part, this is ridiculously over-sentimental tripe. One insultingly contrived scene after another will have you rolling your eyes before long and it gets sillier and more over the top as the film progresses. Such a shamelessly cheesy film really could have done with a decent script or some gripping, sharply written dialogue but every word uttered serves merely as a vehicle to remind the viewer of "what an incredible horse" they're watching. And you'll be told so over and over again scene after scene as Spielberg rams the sentiment of his latest intentional epic heavy-handedly down your throat.

The lead male is unbearable in every scene. Thankfully he only features at the beginning and then at the end of the film. Thos that;s still WAY too much. And crowbarred into the middle of the film is a young actress attempting the worst french accent i've heard since the Pink Panther movies. That's a fun 15 minutes of cringing you can look forward to.

The positives are not many but at times it is beautifully shot and a couple of the battle scenes in no-man's-land were very watchable.

I hoped for some depth somewhere in this movie but this really is just about as shallow as it gets. I could see young children enjoying it but there really is very little here for discerning adults. See it if you must but if half way through you find yourself rolling your eyes and uttering "oh for god's sake...", don't say I didn't tell you so.