Gary Sinise is responsible for just 1 directed film, "Of Mice and Men". Hollywood portraying mentally disabled individuals is a hard task, and rarely done well. John Malkovich would definitely have the ability to do the task, but so does Sean Penn in "I Am Sam", Dustin Hoffman in "Rain Man", Tom Hanks in "Forrest Gump", Leonardo DiCaprio in "What's Eating Gilbert Grape", the whole cast in "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest", and my favorite Billy Bob Thorton in "Sling Blade". These characters were overall portrayed well, but under certain direction, maybe not followed up with good content.
I think this film falls into the category of 'could have been'. I believe it could have been good or better under different direction. This film helps me understand a bit more that not anyone in Hollywood who 'can', should. Sinise does a decent job, perhaps a little better, in his acting role here, but the film focuses too much on things it shouldn't be, at least in the way it was focused on. You really need an artistic eye as a director, to capture things and try to communicate them to the audience correctly. It felt more in this film like Sinise saw some stuff he liked and just rolled film. The film feels like a top notch made for television movie.
I had never been exposed to this story before until I watched this film, and I really felt like the writer probably had more, and better ideas about what they wanted than was given to me visually. Nothing felt raw, but like being in the colorful world of "The Wizard of Oz", everything was too perfect. Perhaps I will adventure over to the older film, and from what I hear its unfortunate I dislike to read because the book is said to be the best.
"Of Mice and Men"
6.5 / 10
