With perfected formulas and agreeable tones, Forrest Gump is a model dad movie. There's quotable dialogue, humor, iconic characters, and an emotional core. It touches on self-worth, abuse, innocence, equality, destiny, openness, autonomy, letting go, and habit. The acting carries the story with precise sincerity, range, vulnerability, motivation, physicality, layers, and conflict. Still, the film falters because it sidesteps serious issues. There's over-sentimentality, whitewashed history, blind conformity, empty platitudes, and indecisive themes. Forrest Gump optimizes a feel-good journey, prime actors, and vague substance, but its timid depth and mixed messages are questionable.
Technically, Forrest Gump is epic yet cheesy. The effects add pyrotechnics, makeup, stunts, prosthetics, blood, and deft CGI. Its cast is career-defining but lacks representation. The production design offers recognizability, variety, symbols, globe-trotting, growth, and scale. Its reasonable imagery uses framing, depth, oners, lighting, motion, and angles. The editing has match cuts, momentum, smash cuts, montages, cross cuts, nonlinears, and an overlong ending. Its sound employs voiceovers, split cuts, action, emphasis, echoes, weather, and quiet. The music is memorable and fitting, yet overdone at times. Overall, Forrest Gump is skillful, entertaining, and feigns meaning.
Writing: 8/10
Direction: 9/10
Cinematography: 8/10
Acting: 10/10
Editing: 8/10
Sound: 9/10
Score/Soundtrack: 9/10
Production Design: 9/10
Casting: 9/10
Effects: 9/10
Overall Score: 8.8/10
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