The opening moments of Miracle at St Anna reek of cheese.  Respectable actors are forced to say shit like "Is that the nina, the pinta or the santa maria?" and "unless you can afford a very expensive lawyer, you're gonna swallow happy pills in the nut house for the rest of your life."  A reporter is given God-like omniscient access to crime scenes and suspects’ homes.  It’s just ridiculous.

Ends up, much of this junk is to serve as a “hook” - because audiences are (of course) too stupid to be engaged by a war drama without some bookend opening to introduce us to a little piece of hope.  The bookend structure, yet again, fails miserably (see Titanic, Saving Private Ryan).

If you can make it through the first half hour, St Anna does have something more interesting to offer.  It’s an ambitious story, with its heart in the right place, but most of the characters are too dull or too seen-before to love.  One never quite achieves engagement.

Is the “pay off” worth it?  Not really.  If you’re thirsty for Spike Lee, check out 25th Hour - a lesser-seen film of his that was quite strong.

One highlight worth mentioning:  a strong performance by Pierfrancesco Favino (Peppi "The Butterfly").