Unbroken has a massive built-in audience: There are the millions who read Laura Hillenbrand’s riveting book, millions more who like a good American war story, and then there are those who are fans of Angelina Jolie’s work. I fall into two of those three categories, and was hoping that Unbroken would be brilliant. Louis Zamperini. the Olympic champion, the POW, the hero, the man, deserves that much. Unfortunately, he didn’t get brilliant. All he got was okay.

I at least expected excellence, with the Coen Brothers working on the script, and Hillenbrand adding her own expertise. She did such a terrific job with her Seabiscuit. And if Jolie’s director’s chops were unproven, she certainly had every resource known to mankind to help her along her way. I would have hoped someone, perhaps her husband Brad Pitt, whose Fury, also a WWII movie, is the gritty antithesis of Unbroken, to step in and give her a few pointers about adding some edge and depth. As it stands, the film Unbroken barely scratches the surface of this profound story as told in the book, polishing it to a glossy sheen that enhances the look but robs the feel.

Saturated colors and golden sunshine permeate every scene prior to Zamperini (played by the game if not great Jack O’Connell) entering the Japanese POW camp. Not a hair is out of place, language and dialogue are mild and cliche’d, even when Zamperini and crew are packed in a bomber, trying to bring down enemy planes, or floating for weeks in a life raft in the middle of the Pacific ocean. Once Zamperini is taken prisoner, the film goes dark without going deep. There’s seemingly endless suffering, torture and standing in formation,  without the spark or insight necessary to keep us interested, or even awake.

And in the end, after suffering through so much right along with Zamperini, there is so little payoff. The film ends abruptly, with a few sentences and a little footage devoted to the rest of Zaperini’s fascinating life. Unintentionally, I think one of the most discernible emotions the audience feels in the end is bitterness towards the captors, which is unfortunate. It winds up being a pretty film with some historical significance, but not the triumph of the human spirit epic that it could have been.

Rated PG-13

2 Hours 17 Minutes