The Second Marvellous Michael Caine Blogathon – The Statement (2003)

This is my first of 3 reviews for the The Second Marvelous Michael Caine Blogathon 2019 taking place next week during the 24-26th of April and being hosted by Gill of WeegieMidget.

Tnx for letting me partake Gill!

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“Pray that we meet again… in this world” – Pierre Broussard

Number of Times Seen – Twice (17 Mar 2006 and 16 Apr 2019)

Brief Synopsis – A former Nazi collaborator in the French led Vichy government tries to find asylum when he is tracked down forty years after committing his crimes by assassins.

My Take on it – This is a film that has a very interesting premise but it fails because it doesn’t find a way to make a decision on whether it wants to try and tell things in an objection way or thru blatant biases which in turn makes this movie quite weak in getting the point across.

Michael Caine does a fine job in the lead role, but this is far from being among his best work because something constantly feels off throughout his performance.

The investigative aspect run by Tilda Swinton and Jeremy Northam is done quite poorly and it constantly feels as if things are missing along the way since they don’t seem to be following any kind of really pattern or plan which takes so much away from the thrilling aspects that this film should have.

This film’s premise is actually a very important one but this movie spends too much of its time dealing with esoteric side plots that don’t allow the rest of the story to remain focused even if the main part is much more interesting.

This is a movie that leaves much more questions than answers by the end which ends up hindering things much more than helping them.

Bottom Line – Weak film that has trouble deciding whether it wants to be objective or biased throughout the story. Caine is fine in the lead role, but something seems a bit out of place the entire time. The investigation being run by Swinton and Northam is conducted quite half-hardily and fails to follow any kind of real pattern. The premise is a very important one yet they spend too much time on other esoteric aspects of the story instead of keeping to the main portion which is more interesting to follow. This film’s story leaves more questions than answers by the end which hurts things a lot.

MovieRob’s Favorite Trivia – This movie opens with a man seeking Sir Michael Caine with the aid of a photograph. In the photograph, the man seen next to Sir Michael is Producer and Director Norman Jewison. (From IMDB)

Rating – Razzie Worthy (4/10)