News Of The World Review: 7 Ups & 3 Downs
Downs...
3. The Overly Simplistic Script
No matter how well-crafted and brilliantly acted it is, there's no getting around the fact that News of the World is written with a simplicity that's alternately comforting and frustrating.
The screenplay, penned by both Greengrass himself and Oscar-nominated Lion scribe Luke Davies, admirably doesn't try to wring every last morsel of saccharine emotion out of its ripe setup, but also offers up little that's likely to truly stick in audience's minds.
The dialogue in particular is disappointingly expository for the most part, and it's tough to remember more than one or two lines of cutting parlance.
In that stead this feels like a first draft script which needed a sharp punch-up before going in front of cameras.
It's easy to knock the film's general predictability, but far more of an issue is just how down-the-line the storytelling and characters are, ensuring everything is laid out for viewers with maximal efficiency but little in the way of true inspiration.