Movie review: The Monuments Men (M)

A star-studded cast tell the story of a mission to save stolen art in World War II.

Who doesn't like a good treasure hunt?

The Monuments Men is a story about history's greatest treasure hunt - the search for tens of thousands of artworks stolen by Adolf Hitler and his Nazi henchmen in World War II.

It seems quite bizarre that in a time of war, Hitler had such an obsession with seizing art from museums and private collections in cities the Germans had overrun.

It was all to service another of his plans - a grand Hitler museum to display all the stolen masterpieces.

Tasked with stopping the thefts and retrieving the artworks were the so-called Monuments Men.

Based on a true story, the team was led by Frank Stokes (George Clooney) and each member offered artistic expertise required of the mission. Among them were Richard Campbell (Bill Murray), an architect, Walter Garfield (John Goodman), a sculptor, and James Granger (Matt Damon), an artist.

A Dad's Army of sorts, they had to become soldiers and learn the necessary skills to survive accidental enemy attacks.

But it was their knowledge and intuition that was to prove valuable as they tried to determine where the stolen artworks had been taken so they could be retrieved.

Integral to their search was Frenchwoman Claire Simone (Cate Blanchett). As an assistant to a senior Nazi official in Paris, she was aware of the thefts but was powerless to stop them.

The knowledge she held was invaluable but she didn't trust the Americans, fearing they, too, would steal the priceless artworks. Only with her help could they crack the code of what was stolen and from where.

The Monuments Men is an amazing war-time story that doesn't rely on death and destruction to get its message across. Although a touch disjointed at times, we get a good idea of what these men faced in putting their lives on the line in the name of art.

Watch the trailer here: