Friday, November 23, 2012

Movie Review: Lincoln

Lincoln

Directed by Steven Speielberg

Starring Daniel Day-Lewis, Sally Field

Rating: B+

            I was hoping I would like this movie more than I did. I liked it enough, but I feel like it did not live up to the hype. Steven Spielberg did a nice job of handing what could be a complicated, boring historical topic. The story moved along and it was interesting despite already knowing the outcome of the 13th Amendment, the Civil War, and Lincoln’s assassination. Daniel Day Lewis delivered a quiet but powerful portrayal of Lincoln, which I can appreciate. Still, for me the movie fell short. There is a tendency in Hollywood and for reviewers to treat anything directed by Spielberg as gold and anything Daniel Day Lewis acts in as worthy of an Oscar statuette. Adding the name Tommy Lee Jones to the casting roster (an interesting and perhaps poor casting decision) is supposed to make a movie even more epic. Plus, because the movie takes place during such a historically significant period of U.S. history and the topic is an amendment that drastically changed life for so many people in the country critics laud it more than other movies. It is as if any movie on a prominent historical figure is worthy of praise. The movie was good, just not as good as I thought it was going to be.

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