Sean Penn, James Gandolfini, Jude Law, Anthony Hopkins, Directed by Steven Zaillian
Rated PG-13

All the King’s Men has some of my favorite cinematic elements?a killer ensemble cast, a powerful stand-out performance, dark and moody lighting to enhance the corruption?all set in the swampy lands of Louisiana in the ’50s.

So why doesn’t it work?

A film based on both a Pulitzer Prize-winning novel (written by Robert Penn Warren) and a prior Academy Award-winning film (1949) breeds high expectations. But this film lacks the substance and credibility of its predecessors.

There are far too many characters, which inhibits them from being fully fleshed out and the story?about small-town do-gooder Willie Stark (Penn) running for governor on the “hick ticket” in support of the people?comes at a cataclysmic point in modern politics and, with the exception of oil companies having their dirty little hands in politics, has nothing to say about current events.

Why, then, remake a classic if you’ve nothing to say? It’s much like watching some of the less renowned classic films, waiting patiently at first to see what all the fuss is about yet finding yourself easily distracted and?dare I say it??bored.

When dealing with a cast of such magnitude, one expects the storytelling to measure up accordingly. Writer/director Zaillian’s script does not. The actors’ talents are wasted, save proving that they can do that flourishing Cajun drawl, which everyone held together pretty well except poor Gandolfini, who seems unsure whether he’s on the Jersey-based “Sopranos” set or in the Louisiana swamplands.

Sean Penn nearly saved the movie with his outstanding performance. His take on Stark is both sympathetic and strong, very convincing and honest.
In the end, though, the film is less about politics and more the story of the film’s narrator Jack (Law), who finds the idealism of his youth challenged and threatened. But it’s too late, I quit caring an hour earlier.