Les Fous du roi

I accept moral and political dilemmas, as well as the tearing apart of family problems, but these two aspects do not work together. Mainly because we see politics in the first half, then without warning we switch to relationships, romance, and drama, and in the end, both aspects overlap and create a very cleverly filmed, but perhaps calculating catharsis. The second aspect that spoils the experience surprisingly is Sean Penn. His performance has some captivating moments, but I couldn't shake the feeling that he's trying to earn an Oscar nomination from every ordinary dialogue or simple view from the window, incorporating all available facial and vocal techniques to attract all the attention to himself. He escapes the natural expression of the eternal nice guy Law or the excellent Horner's soundtrack. He looks good in (almost) All the King's Men, but the coldness emanates from them too often. (30/06/2010)

A boring topic that required a much better screenwriter and director to make it watchable. Political manipulations are not very interesting, and when they are adapted into a film format that is everything but engaging and entertaining, something is probably not right. There are some captivating passages (Penn's speeches, romantic scenes) that have brilliant sound and acoustics, but the story itself is a mess of tedious dialogues without deeper connection and coherence. Moreover, with a runtime of over two hours, you easily loses concentration, and then there is nothing left but to pray for this excessively intellectual and overall very disjointed and confusing creation to reach its destination. (30/10/2008)

Before you watch this film, you might want to check out The Dead Zone. The film has a similar theme, plus it's suspenseful and gripping if you don't mind slightly supernatural elements. All the King's Men is boring, despite the great cast assembled here. Steven Zaillian got nothing out of them. (11/07/2017)