Saving Lincoln

The film feels like an animated Wikipedia page, just sort of running through the greatest hits of Lincoln's life in office - the Emancipation Proclamation! Gettysburg! The Theater! - without any real insight.

Under even the best of circumstances, Saving Lincoln would have to inevitably face the scrutiny of potential redundancy.

Note to filmmakers: Just because you can do something doesn't necessarily mean you should do it.

Comes off like a View-Master version of a tale already told.

Litvak's shoestring production sketches in episodes from Lincoln's entire administration, including a strange "Dixie'' singalong on the White House steps to mark the end of the war.

The script, while largely historically accurate, is undermined by stilted dialogue, and the pic is laced with ill-fitting parts that wind up literally all over the matte.

An ancillary curio about the man and his struggles, at least for history buffs, and an unusual exception to an old screenwriting rule -- a movie whose framing device benefits it much more than its actual execution.

The innovative look. . .of thrusting actors directly into archival photographs, . .the primary reason to see the film, is particularly striking. . .as visual authenticity.

A bold visual feat undermined by an overstuffed, cold and shallow screenplay and awkward theatrical performances.

The film suggests a way modestly budgeted movies can approach historical epochs and figures in a provocative and arresting manner.