Angelina Jolie had me at the Directors Guild of America screening of "UNBROKEN" sitting on the edge of my seat as the movie begins with a good Italian family speaking Italian. How refreshing it was to see a warm Italian family with a mother figure that seemed to hold the picture together. Then bam, you feel like you are actually on an old bomber airplane in WWII. If you have a fear of heights, your stomach will be doing summersaults. The airplane scenes made you feel alive and were shot beautifully.
In the first half of the movie there is a series of flashbacks that bring pleasure. Then the second half of the movie turns into serious drama, like "LIFE IF BEAUTIFUL", but there are no jokes with a small child to lighten the load. We know the hero is unbroken, and the torture needed, but without light toned flashbacks in the second half or something that serves the same purpose, I walked out to the Directors Guild of America's lobby looking at a beautiful Christmas tree, feeling like I wanted to see more moments of his rich Italian life's struggles and celebrations. Going back to childhood scenes or rehearing his brother's or his mother's words that helped shaped his character may have been the ticket our beautiful, loved, and talented, Angelina Jolie, needed for an Oscar Nomination.
Angelina Jolie may not have made it to the Oscars with "UNBROKEN", but her new film CLEOPATRA is a possibility. Being the vibe of that thought, I looked up on the wall of the DGA and saw the 1934 Cecil B. DeMille film, CLEOPATRA.
