All The King's Men

Reviewed by:
Pete Hammond

A fine cast including Jude Law, James Gandolfini, and Kate Winslet is largely wasted in this remake of 1949's Best Picture Oscar winner, All The King's Men. Only Sean Penn shines as Willie Stark, a small-time local Southern politician recruited to run for governor in a backroom deal struck to split the redneck vote and insure the re-election of the hack incumbent. Loosely based on the life of former Louisiana Governor Huey Long, this dark and brooding story attempts to show how a hayseed loser can rise to the top by emphasizing his ties to the poor populace, only to eventually become exactly what he was running against. Cynicism and politics have always gone together but this dated story, based on a novel by Robert Penn Warren, is born of another era with little relevance for today's audiences. In this hyped-up Internet age, an old-style candidate who screams every word and flails his arms around with complete abandon would just get eaten up by the media. Still, Penn, all backslapping bluster and over-the-top oratory aside, is highly entertaining to watch as he barks out stump speeches with the foaming ferocity of a bulldog. This isn't Penn's greatest screen work by a long shot, but watching an actor of this caliber swing for the fences and hit a couple out is almost worth the 10 bucks and parking. We said almost. The rest of the film dies whenever Penn is off-camera with director Steve Zaillian, and the supporting cast never really getting a beat on how to breathe some much-needed life into it. Unfortunately as a political history lesson, it just ain't that compellin', y'all.

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