What a flood of negative reviews. Could this remake of the 1949 multiple Academy Award winner really be that bad? Sean Penn’s Willie Stark is a true populist, not the proto-fascist demogogue of the original film and the 1946 novel. Weaknesses? Sure. The worst: music often overbearing and accents wandering all over the place—a combination that sometimes drowns the dialogue. Still, an engrossing, tough-minded and honest movie, a version of All the King’s Men that deserves to be seen.
Rich Yurman
