All the King's Men

On Tuesday, October 17, 2006, I went to see the movie All the King's Men. It featured many well known actors and actresses, such as: Sean Penn, Anthony Hopkins, Jude Law, Mark Ruffalo and Kate Winslet. This was not the best film ever made, but it was also not the worst film ever made. I was so involved with the acting and the three storylines that I did not see the ending coming.

Sean Penn is a small town "hick" who became an elected official. He then went on to become the Governor of the State of Louisiana. It shows the corruption of politics, and how everyone has a dirty secret that is covered up, since there are times when people have done whatever it is that they had to do to get into positions of power.

Penn's character is for the people. This however, does not gel well with the oil tychoons and the Conservatives, and therefore, these individuals work together to try and impeach him.

Of course, like every other politician, Penn's character also has some bad habits. Beneath his storyline of doing things for the people, there were storylines of Jude Law's character, and his infatuation/being in love with (doesn't really get clarified in the film, or if I did, I missed it - though Winslet's character mouths "I love you" to Jude Law's character) Winslet's character.

This movie contained superb acting from many talented actors and actresses. Kate Winslet, again pulls of an excellent performance. She shouldn't need to do a piece about the Holocaust to get an Oscar. (reference to Extras). Jude Law's acting was also excellent. Sean Penn was good, Anthony Hopkins, I was a bit disappointed in, but perhaps because I've only really seen him the Silence of the Lamb series. His character of a caring father figure, however, I did buy. I never had much appreciation for Mark Ruffalo's acting, but he also came through in this film. Perhaps it won't get an Oscar nod (there may be some Oscar nods, but Ruffalo probably won't get one), but it was one of the better roles that he has had, one with more substance or backbone.

I won't give away the ending here, but needless to say, I was so enthralled with the acting, the thickening of plots, and the parallel storylines that I didn't see the ending coming, until maybe about the last five to ten minutes.

After the movie, I went and had coffee with Flavio. Actually, he was there with me during the movie. I enjoyed myself, but we got to the Starbucks at 10:30 p.m., when it closed at 11:00 p.m., and I felt a bit rushed out of the cafe.