Yes the film is affecting given the subject matter, how could it not be? The intentions behind it are good and it is a story that left much of the audience at the screening I attended silent as the end credits rolled. Most will leave the theater feeling pummeled as the traumatic atrocities pile up without relent for the 134-minute running time. Romantic historical epics like Lean’s Zhivago, Warren Beatty’s Reds and even Michael Cimino’s Heaven’s Gate rarely happen anymore so it is refreshing to see filmmakers try to bring it back. And yet upon further reflection, I grew annoyed that an important subject that must be told was in service to a half-baked romance we’ve seen done to death. Somewhere in George’s latest is a good movie if only it didn’t keep pushing that love story I could care less about in my face every chance it could.