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Title: A ponderous film to watch
Review: What do you get when you combine some of Hollywood's best talent? In the case of The Good Shepherd, you get a really boring film with a multitude of problems. With multiple confusing flashbacks, a myriad of characters whom we never get to know in any depth, and more than 2 and 1/2 hours of watching Matt Damon look really, really serious to the accompaniment of really, really dreary background music, you end up with a perfect cure for insomnia. Not once did I care about any of the characters, which is critical to the success of this film. They all seemed to be moving underwater, which is a good analogy to describe the pace of the film. Intellectually, I got the point of what the characters did, why they did it, and the gut-wrenching nature of their actions, but it never hit me in the gut. Had HBO done this as a 10 to 12 hours mini-series, I believe it would have worked wonderfully because they could have fleshed out the characters.
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