All the younger actors in this movie were great – I really liked Brad Pitt in it (and Eric Bana, etc… even that wimply guy who woo’d Helen was OK). But the older Kings? They were too “unkingly”, and “unwise”. Maybe that was part of the point, but it really made the movie frustrating to watch. As for its adherence to the “true story”? Get over it! It’s not a truly told story anyway, so who cares? People who get all worked up about “the classics” miss the point I think. The classics were never classics when they were written – they were just the pop fiction of their day.