Film Reviews

War Horse

• Rating:
• Director: Steven Spielberg
• Starring: Benedict Cumberbatch
• Details: US/146min 12A

Showcasing more of "the beards" lesser traits than his obvious skills, War Horse is a painfully slow, sometimes beautiful but mostly just schmalzty production that wears its stage origins too obviously on its sleeve. Spielberg attempts to make proceedings as sweepingly cinematic as possible, but the characters just aren't well rounded enough to engage.
Horses have had a bad run of late (sorry), but unlike recent efforts, here the focus isn't on one racing, but rather one stumbling across mainland Europe during the First World War. Raised by Jeremy Irvine's idealistic but poor sort, Albert, the amusingly named "Joey" soon finds himself in the middle of a war and on enemy lines. Albert can't bear to be without his four legged buddy, so signs up for national service in the hope they'll meet again one day.
Pulling out every visual trick in the book, you know you're in trouble a few minutes in when the soundtrack is already telling you exactly how to feel. For the first twenty five minutes or so this is basically a Hovis ad with a bigger budget, and it only ever pulls out of that stage when proceedings switch to the war. In fairness, the battle scenes are wonderfully staged, but the exchanges between soldiers, even with actors as talented as these, feel more like mini speeches. Everyone is projecting so the folks in the cheap seats can hear.
That's not to say there's not an audience for War Horse. It's a safe, firmly Sunday afternoon, old school production that your grandparents will love. There's something inherently classy about it; from the slick cinematography to the stunning set design - aesthetically at least - this is impressive stuff. And as ''lead animal characters that can't speak'' go, Joey manages to show a decent amount of range and actually takes direction better than some of the human cast.
Whatever way you dress it up, Steven Spielberg is on a cold streak and War Horse only extends that. The Daniel Day Lewis starring Abraham Lincoln biopic is up next, and for everyones sake lets hope the script is better there.

Review by Mike Sheridan