All the King's Men

Despite great performances from an outstanding cast, which includes Sean Penn, Jude Law, Kate Winslet, James Gandolfini, and Anthony Hopkins, "All the King's Men" is a slow, plodding, and confusing movie that rarely kept my attention. I checked my watch multiple times during this one.

Before I go any further, no, I have not read the 1946 Pulitzer-prize winning novel that this is based on, nor have I seen the original 1949 Oscar-winning movie. I can't imagine that either one is as dull and cluttered as this current version. Penn stars as Willie Stark, a self-proclaimed Louisiana "hick" who ends up as governor of the southern state by appealing to the common man. He seeks to rid his state government of the corruption that has benefited the rich and maligned the poor. While his speeches go over very well with the other "hicks", the power brokers who try to maintain control want nothing to do with him, and work to bring him down.

For as good as his original intentions are, Stark soon finds that it is much easier to get his way with issues when he has power over others. It doesn't take Willie long at all to turn to the dark side that he so vehemently speaks out against. As his own state legislature tries to impeach him, Stark turns to the powerful Judge Irwin (Hopkins) for support. Instead, Irwin endorses the impeachment efforts. In an attempt to get Irwin back on his side, the governor sends one of his loyal staff members, Jack Burden (Law), on a mission to dig up dirt on the judge in order to blackmail him. Turns out that Jack has a long history with the judge, which only serves to confuse the entire storyline.

The performances are certainly top-notch, with Penn especially powerful. Unfortunately, nothing else here works. The story is very slow getting out of the gate, and never reaches more than a slow trot from there. There are back stories that have no purpose to the main issue, and southern accents are spoken so heavily I couldn't understand what was being said a quarter of the time. The only consolation for me was that I got to see this as a free sneak preview. Save your money here too. All the king's horses could not drag me back to see "All the King's Men" again. I give it a D.

"All the King's Men" is rated PG-13 with a running time of two hours.