On P List of Movie Reviews

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The Power of One (1992)

Rate: 5
Viewed: 4/23

4/23: It was hard for me to evaluate The Power of One until the final thirty minutes when I started to think about several masterpieces.

Why Lean on Me, Lawrence of Arabia, and Braveheart worked as inspiring movies is that they had larger-than-life characters. It's what sells the story, causing me to ask: "Did it happen for real?"

Unfortunately, Stephen Dorff and other child actors for the role of P.K. don't have it. Dorff is young-looking here, but he's an awful, bland actor. No matter how much the rest of the cast such as Morgan Freeman, Armin Mueller-Stahl, John Gielgud, and Alois Moyo keep feeding to the myth of the rainmaker, it never works.

Fay Masterson as Maria Marais is another outlet to parlay the ambitious feeling, but she's not given enough time to develop her character. When she died, I wasn't moved. The same is said for the boxing match between P.K. and Duma. In short, everything has been ordinary and unconvincing.

All in all, The Power of One is the film that director John G. Avildsen started to lose his touch permanently.

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