Ed Zwick’s Defiance should have definitely been subtitled “A Bunch of Jews Walking in the Woods.” That is basically what you get for two hours of this 137 minute “war” movie. This is one of those true stories that sounds really interesting in a paragraph or two, but just can’t cut it for a whole movie (I haven’t seen Milk yet, but I am guessing it is the same way). Daniel Craig plays a blond-haired, blue-eyed Jew who leads a group of more traditional looking Jews out of the Belorussian ghetto and into the woods to escape Nazis. His brother is played by Liev Schreiber and most of the film’s drama centers around their conflict, and not the conflict with the Nazis. I can’t stand Liev Schreiber and this film did nothing to change that. Craig is alright but his (and everyone’s) horrible accent is incredibly annoying. One of the three or four actions sequences isn’t bad (the planes) but the others are weak – and in general they felt awkwardly placed (as I thought they did in Zwick’s Blood Diamond). On top of all that, I found Eduardo Serra’s cinematography to be pretty lackluster as well. Yikes, not a lot going for Ed Zwick here. It might be an interesting story, but you are better off dialing up the book on Amazon than wasting your $9.75 at the multiplex.

Speaking of wasting money, man am I glad I didn’t pay to see Revolutionary Road. Sam Mendes’s stinker feels like a two hour argument with your significant other (if only you two were as attractive as Leo and Kate). The real problem here is the writing. Justin Haythe’s script is bohooore-horing. Mid-century marital strife is done better in every episode of Mad Men, where the period plays as big of a role as any character. Here the period is pointless. So they don’t want to conform… who cares? Kate Winslet’s character doesn’t feel like a woman confined by her societal station, she is just bored. January Jones’s Betty Draper (again, Mad Men) seethes with the frustration of having to take care of her children while her husband swims in the secretarial pool, all the while maintaining the quiet demeanor of the Norman Rockwell’s mother of the year. Dynamic! What happens when Winslet’s character is prodded just a tiny bit? She screams and goes running into the woods. DiCaprio’s character is just as insipid. And whatever happened to subtext? It is too annoying how the characters just blurt out whatever it is that you are supposed to know and feel. The only interesting moment in the entire film (neighbor Shep’s reaction to the “incident”) comes at the end of the third act – too late to be developed! I can’t believe this is already racking up nominations. I really expected more from the director of as compelling of a film as American Beauty.

With awards offerings like these, no wonder Vantage is out of business.