'Unbroken' Review Round up: Angelina Jolie's War Film Opens to Mixed Reactions

Angelina Jolie's war film "Unbroken" has received mixed reviews from critics. While the lagging plot has been criticised Jolie's direction and Jack O'Connell's efforts have garnered appreciation. O'Connell portrays the role of Olympic runner Louie Zamperini during World War II. 

The movie is based on Laura Hillenbrand's nonfiction "Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption" and is Jolie's second directorial venture after "In the Land of Blood and Honey".

Apart from O'Connell, Domhnall Gleeson, Miyavi, Garrett Hedlund, Finn Wittrock and Jai Courtney also play pivotal roles in the film.

The 137-minutes-long war film, edited by Tim Squyres and Distributed by Universal Pictures, is scheduled for a Christmas release.

Check out the reviews of "Unbroken" below:

The Hollywood Reporter

"A great true story is telescoped down to a merely good one in 'Unbroken'. After a dynamite first half-hour, Angelina Jolie's accomplished second outing as a director slowly loses steam as it chronicles the inhuman dose of suffering endured by Olympic runner Louie Zamperini in Japanese internment camps during World War II.

"Wonderfully acted by Jack O'Connell in the leading role and guided with a steady hand by Jolie without unduly inflating the heroics or injecting maudlin cliches, this will be a tough film for some to take."

The Guardian

"This is a true story, right enough, but there are inevitable echoes of other films: 'Chariots of Fire', 'The Bridge on the River Kwai', 'Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence'. Though apparently keen to stick to the facts, Jolie's stolidly conventional approach to the material hardly freshens it up.

"O'Connell, so eye-catching in the likes of '71', as well as 'Starred Up', makes an impressive step up to the Hollywood big leagues, but the flared-nostril emoting required of him tends to swamp the wary-eyed every mannishness of his recent roles."

Variety

"Impeccable craftsmanship and sober restraint have been brought to bear on 'Unbroken,' Angelina Jolie's beautifully wrought but cumulatively underwhelming portrait of Louis Zamperini, the Olympic runner-turned-U.S. Air Force bombardier.

"With a major awards push for Jolie and her topnotch collaborators — DP Roger Deakins, composer Alexandre Desplat and editors Tim Squyres and William Goldenberg not least among them — Universal should be able to court a sizable worldwide audience for this capably stirring, morally unambiguous and classically polished prestige picture about an unusually spirited member of the Greatest Generation who survived a hell beyond anyone's imagination."