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'King’s Men' a bit disappointing
Movie Review: All the King’s Men
By John Wirt
jwirt@theadvocate.com
Advocate movie critic
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The movie stars Oscar-winner Sean Penn as Stark. Another Oscar-winner, Steven Zaillian, wrote and directed All the King’s Men. And a great cast joins Penn, including Jude Law, Kate Winslet, James Gandolfini, Patricia Clarkson and, a third Oscar winner, Anthony Hopkins.
Regrettably, the Louisiana-shot All the King’s Men goes off the rails. A wandering muddle of momentum-stalling flashbacks, the film doesn’t take off till its final 25 minutes. Dots simply don’t connect in a Babel of poorly rendered accents, three of which are attempted by British actors who often look lost.
But All the King’s Men — previously seen in a 1949 film adaptation that won three Oscars, and a 1958 TV version directed by Sidney Lumet — has some high cards. Penn’s performance as the hick who would be king veers powerfully from passionate to menacing. His dialogue can be difficult to understand, but he’s got that redneck meanness down.
Yet Penn doesn’t seem to be in the same film as the actors surrounding him. He exists in a space apart from Law as Stark’s aide, Jack Burden; Winslet, Hopkins and Mark Ruffalo playing members of a fading aristocratic family; and Gandolfini as political boss Tiny Duffy.
Another plus for the movie is its authentic locations, including the Louisiana State Capitol (the Art Deco skyscraper built by Long as a monument to himself), several New Orleans locations, Morgan City, Thibodaux and Albania Plantation near Jeanerette.
Ironically, though, the story’s sense of place is stronger in the 1949 film, presumably shot in southern California. The nearly documentary-style crowd scenes in the earlier film, too, convey Stark’s potentially destructive power over his fellow hicks more so than the 2006 film and its relatively tame public gatherings.
As seen in the 1949 film, Stark’s dramatic rise from hick to governor of a poor Southern state is the stuff of great drama. This lurching new adaptation, however, mostly fails to find a hook to grab and pull moviegoers along. Even Penn’s big speech on the steps of the State Capitol is undermined by disruptive editing. And moviegoers may have trouble realizing who’s who, who’s doing what to whom and why. Winslet and Ruffalo’s brother-and-sister act, especially, fades into French Quarter shadows.
Attempts at profundity stumble, too, as the film’s hazy storytelling doesn’t get across big points about idealism corrupted.
Because All the King’s Men is so well intended and talent filled, the failings in this film that Louisiana has such a natural interest in make it all the more disappointing.
