A Place in the Sun
Director: George Stevens
Year Released: 1951
Rating: 2.0
Its effectiveness is almost entirely based on how you view Montgomery Clift's character: if you empathize with his silent, lost-young-man approach, you're in the clear. But I found him to be too stone-faced (even for Clift!) even for my tolerance, which of course caused some problems in terms of empathy and identification. Thematically, it's similar to the British film A Room at the Top - honestly, you could interchange the two and you'd find little difference between them. With such standard material playing out so slowly, the length of the film becomes a problem. 'Don't bother trying to elevate your social standing,' is the message I took from it, 'because you'll only wind up in the electric chair.' So true.
