Of two minds about this one – on the one hand, you can absolutely tell where the studio execs butted in, and that absolutely brings down the film. The constant on the nose voiceover, the on the nose dialogue, the useless Liv Tyler character who deserved better…it’s all in service of an emotional journey that would have been better off with more showing than telling. Regardless, though, Pitt does a wonderful job with a tough character and, in my opinion, accomplishes what Ryan Gosling was trying to do in First Man but couldn’t. The fact that Gray still manages to draw out so much emotion from a constantly hacked at story is a testament to his talent – this is one of those rare films where the emotional crux of the story doesn’t quite land 100%, but everything around it makes it feel like it does. It doesn’t hurt that Hoytema and Richter do an incredible job, as expected, and that Pitt carries the film on his shoulders. It’s good, not quite great, but I’m really glad this got the release that it did.
GRADE: B
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