It succeeds at what Spielberg is great at, war epics, but falls short and flat in the first act of the film, where the emotion and characters are established, which is sad.
Sad because it could have been great. Sad because Emily Watson's acting was brutally wasted. And sadder still because it's not a bad story, or a bad cast, and neither does it have a bad cinematographer. But some of the choices made earlier in the film, composition, direction and the uneven camera work is impossible to bare. Thank god it doesn't last long.
The rest of the film more than makes up for it, and it is incredibly heartfelt and perfectly done. Enough so to make you forget the beginning, until the last scene, but oh well.
Buy it and enjoy it, it truly is a good film.
If you fancy, watch it with you kids (unless you haven't explained death to them yet), there are no explicit on screen deaths (my 3 year old thought everyone had fallen and were gonna get better). There's no blood, and unlike the rest of Spielberg's war films. This one is more stylized.
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