War Horse (2011)

Seriously Spielberg? Seriously? Look, I enjoy dramatic movies that are designed pretty much to stir tears in your eyes, and Steven Spielberg has made some pretty strong films of that ilk, but War Horse takes things to another extreme. I admit I haven't read the novel, and a Broadway play will be opening up in the next couple months in Toronto, but this movie leaves me with no desire to seek out either of those versions of the story.For the first hour of this movie, I consistently rolled my eyes at the cheesy, predictable, and heavy handed set up of Albert, a young farm boy who strikes a friendship with a newly acquired horse he's named Joey. Much is expected of Joey in terms of plowing the fields as Albert's father foolishly paid too much for the damn animal (don't ask me to feel sorry for the family; this father is an idiot of a businessman). Of course, Joey is stubborn, but after a few moments of Albert pleading with Joey and almost ready to give up on the horse, John Williams' booming, overly-sentimental music will kick in and the horse will pull through. Just as a storm destroys the farm's crops, Albert's father is forced to sell Joey to the English army, who just declared war with Germany. (Cue laughable scene of Albert hugging Joey and swearing he will be reunited with him one day.) Then, surprisingly, I started to get interested in the movie. As the years go by, the English soldier who rides Joey is killed in a battle, and the horse passes on to two German soldiers. These soldiers are also killed and Joey then ends up in the hands of a little peasant girl who has lost her parents in the war. I became intrigued in where this story was going - seeing many aspects of World War 1 from the perspective of this horse. I decided to give the movie another chance.But of course, the third act of the film has Albert reunited with his animal friend in a ridiculously improbable circumstance. Predictable plot points designed with the sole purpose of manipulating the audience to tears happen almost every five minutes, and the final twenty minutes are just full of such over the top, sappy, corny, ridiculous sentiment, it made my eyes widen as I realized what a bad movie this really is. There's very little wrong from a technical aspect. It's gorgeously shot, the acting is decent, the scope is epic, and the pacing is well edited. But that's to be expected from a Spielberg film, who has all the money in the world to throw into his productions. What kills this movie is Spielberg's heavy handed approach, which in the case of War Horse, gives the term heavy handed an entirely new meaning.