The Monuments Men

Directed by George Clooney

(PG-13)

**

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George Clooney has managed to make “an exceedingly dull and dreary” caper film from a fascinating true-life war story, said Scott Foundas in Variety. Playing the leader of the U.S. Army unit charged with saving priceless artworks from Nazi destruction during World War II, the star and director never finds a workable tone before settling on “solemn sermonizing” about art’s importance. The story opens on a lighter note, said Keith Uhlich in Time Out New York. As Bill Murray, John Goodman, and Matt Damon are recruited to fill out Clooney’s team of experts, “you might think you’re watching Stripes.” But lightly comic interludes about these fish-out-of-water soldiers soon “bump uneasily against rankly sentimental scenes.” Though Monuments Men “never quite shakes off its family-friendly squareness,” it’s hard to fully dislike, said David Edelstein in New York magazine. As the turmoil in Iraq and Afghanistan mocks us, who can resist the nostalgic appeal of a mission in which Americans fought successfully for universal values? “It’s a pipe dream of decency in a world that has lost its moral compass.”