Film Review - The Monuments Men - George Clooney

John Goodman, Matt Damon, George Clooney, Bob Balaban and Bill Murray

Directed, written and produced by George Clooney, Monuments Men is loosely based a book by Robert M Edsel which tells the story of the Monuments, Fine Arts and Archives program, a small allied group tasked to recover artworks and other cultural items stolen by the Nazis during WWII.

The group faces an almost impossible task of locating the millions of looted items secreted in various locations in Germany and returning them to their rightful owners. With a team comprising only seven art historians, curators and museum directors, combat action still in progress, a similar unit from the Soviet Union also seeking to seize artworks as war reparations and orders from Hitler to destroy the seized objects if Germany falls, it is a race against time.

The film has an exceptionally strong cast with George Clooney, Matt Damon, John Goodman, Bob Balaban, Bill Murray, Jean Dujardin and Hugh Bonneville as the antiquities recovery team with Cate Blanchett as a French art curator, who for the most part is sceptical as to their true motives. With high production values and a feel good theme, this is a well executed, Saturday afternoon matinee type of film.