The Broken Tower (2011)

The Broken Tower: Directed by James Franco. With James Franco, Michael Shannon, Richard Abate, Betsy Franco. A biography of American poet Hart Crane who committed suicide at the age of 32 by jumping off the steamship SS Orizaba.

“This is a pretty interesting biopic, with strong performances across the board and a pretty engaging story. However, itu0026#39;s nothing particularly outstanding, due to its evident holding back against really going after Armstrong. Yes, this is still a pretty scathing story, but it still all feels far too plain and simple, and thereu0026#39;s never any real gusto in the writing to make you passionately dislike Armstrong, which the movie is trying to do.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eBut before we get into that, letu0026#39;s look at the most impressive part of this film, which are the performances. Ben Foster, as Lance Armstrong, is brilliant, and often terrifying and hateful to the extent that you really want the movie to show you, and without him doing such a good job in the role, this film would have been at a loss, given his incredible acting.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eIn the side role as the journalist determined to take Armstrong down, Chris Ou0026#39;Dowd is also pretty good. Itu0026#39;s not a world-beating performance that makes you want to whole-heartedly will the man onto revealing Armstrongu0026#39;s lies, but he is a likable character, and one of the only ones that can firmly support in the whole film.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe way that this film tells the history of Armstrongu0026#39;s deception is also very interesting. Although itu0026#39;s all in recent memory for most of us, thereu0026#39;s still a lot of information here that you didnu0026#39;t know about, particularly revolving around the inner workings of Armstrongu0026#39;s United States Postal Service team and how he was the ring leader in the world of doping in cycling.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eHowever, thatu0026#39;s about it. This film is definitely interesting and well-acted, but itu0026#39;s not an outstanding, memorable biopic. It feels more like reading a very interesting textbook cover-to-cover, full of fascinating information, but with no real high drama or emotion to fully show the significance of whatu0026#39;s going on, and to really pull you into the story rather than just observing it.”