This is not bad enough to get only a 4 star. This is nowhere good enough to be a 7 star.
This is a 5 or 6 star. Yes, it's low budget, but the cinematography is better than many with this kind of budget. Yes, they "steal" footage from old documentaries, but the imagery and colors from those pop in a nice way. The dialogue is good enough; not stellar, but not hardly too rough or clunky. The acting is good enough. The plot is already known, since it's based on history. To me, the biggest weakness is the over-long personal scenes that don't matter, like the fish-monger scene with tinges of Poor-Man's Tarantino. The love story and the domestic marriage scenes are extraneous too; they let the air out of what little tension this movie otherwise has.
This subject is tailor-made for a 20-30-million dollar project. This small project doesn't come close to exploiting that. Or even better -- a 3-episode limited series. Arquette isn't bad in it; it's hardly the worst perfomance of his career. Just don't go out of your way or pay any fees to watch this. It's not worth money to see.
This subject is tailor-made for a 20-30-million dollar project. This small project doesn't come close to exploiting that. Or even better -- a 3-episode limited series. Arquette isn't bad in it; it's hardly the worst perfomance of his career. Just don't go out of your way or pay any fees to watch this. It's not worth money to see.