Critic Reviews

It’s good—not a knockout by any means, but a modern example of the sort of movie that used to be a permanent asset in Hollywood’s studio portfolio: a well-crafted but accessible biopic about the maturation of a person who helped shape the nation’s image of itself.

Young Washington gets credit for attempting the impossible and for succeeding too, at least to the extent of being entertaining.

This one survives on strong performances and Erwin’s confident sense of place — not groundbreaking cinema, but a well-made piece of American cinematic history.

It’s a story about a somewhat callow young man learning to put responsibility and ethics over ambition, and if that sounds dry, well, it is.

Aimed at a Christian demographic, the film plays like an ‘Afterschool Special’ with a hot Brit model acting the twentysomething rebel before he became our first POTUS. The film sticks surprisingly close to history without finding a satisfying way to enliven it.

The most bracing thing about Young Washington is its commitment to old-fashioned stodginess. Declamatory acting, cleanly stated motivations and a few solidly staged battle sequences are the order of the day. (Personality, humor, a sense of 18th-century texture — less so.)

Young Washington informs and illuminates as it passes the time between blasts of action. It’s the life, love and struggle beyond the edges of the screen, events outside of the adventures, social slights and Red Letter Dates that seems lacking.

Young Washington is just competent enough to create that crisp tug of schoolkid patriotism the books we read as children provided. Nothing wrong with that, as long as you’re not an adult confusing feel-good heroism with the lessons of history.

Although so-so “Young Washington” fulfils its baseline promise — Look! Washington! While young! — it doesn’t accomplish much more than that.

Feeling much longer than its two hours, Young Washington suffers from the stiff, stodgy quality of so many historical dramas, especially those concerning that particular period of history.