Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk is not a good movie. It pains me to report this, as Ang Lee is a master storyteller and filmmaker, and I’ve been a fan of all of his films (yes, even Ride with the Devil, which is hugely underrated). However, nothing about this movie worked for me as a viewer.
Granted, I saw this on Blu-ray, so I was not able to see it as Lee had intended, in Ultra-HD 4-K 3-D, shot in 120 frames per second. While the colors certainly popped off my television screen, the subjective cinematography choices in general were bizarre, and the film was shot by the legendary John Toll, so I assume that everyone’s relative inexperience with the new on-set technology resulted in the disjointed aesthetic nature of the entire piece.
The performances are all incredibly flat and all feel like they’re stuck in the rehearsal stages, there’s no life to any of the supposed emotional beats.
Characters who have just met each other speak to one another as if they’ve known each other for years, and the lone action scene is relatively disappointing in terms of how it’s supposed to feed into the entire PTSD-afflicted narrative; outside of the phrase “pink-mist” being graphically depicted on-screen, I’ve seen much more hardcore depictions of warfare.
I’m an ardent supporter of topical films and movies that examine our current societal landscape; I’m definitely not one of those people who scream “too soon” when filmmakers decide to tell true stories concerning recent events that have been ripped from the headlines.
There are great cinematic stories of heroism and narratives that celebrate the human spirit and shine a light on the repercussions of the ongoing war in the Middle East, and more will certainly be made.
But this is a big missed opportunity by a world-class filmmaker who must’ve been blinded by the possibilities of technology, as the script that Lee was given was never ready to shoot, filled with on-the-nose dialogue and zero sense of urgency.
I’ll still never understand why Sony would have allowed Lee and his collaborators to shoot this movie if the studio never intended on fully supporting an appropriate release; it’s very possible that many of my gripes with the finished product might’ve been lessened had I experienced the film the way it was supposed to have been experienced.
I have no doubt that Ang Lee will make another great movie, but this particular effort will now exist as a curious entry on his diverse and rather amazing filmography.
Review by Nick Clement.
Our Rating
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Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk
Summary
It’s just simply not a good movie. No urgency, flat performances and.. ugh.. just terrible.
