Will came out on Netflix on Wednesday, Jan. 31. The film follows two police officers who struggle with conflicting ideals and the weight of moral choices during the Nazi occupation in World War II.

Right from the start, Will encapsulates you in this very gritty, dark and brutal environment. You can immediately sense that the main characters don’t like what they are doing, and are forced to carry out the commands of a regime they don’t agree with. The opening 15 minutes perfectly generate enough suspense and tension to make the audience engaged and intrigued in what is to come. With that being said… after the intense start, the movie definitely loses a lot of steam.

The biggest problem with Will is that it doesn’t know its identity. The flick seems to shift its intentions in moments, sometimes being a savage war movie, sometimes being a drama and sometimes completely focusing on romance. This made it hard to fully invest in the story, when its focus continued to switch. The entire middle portion of the film almost entirely forgets the main story at times, resulting in a very overlong effort. Will is 114 minutes long, when it probably would’ve been much more impactful if it was closer to 90.

There are some stylistic choices that I admired here. The film’s color palette is very dark and grimy, and combined with the 4:3 aspect ratio it fits the time period very well.

While other portions of the film may not have come together fully, the ending really did it home. It’s a shocking and violent conclusion that really left me speechless. Still, altogether, Will isn’t the most enjoyable experience. A lot of the movie forgets about its main purpose and delves into a variety of different subplots that aren’t always interesting. It’s ambitious in moments, but that’s probably to a fault. There’s a phenomenal movie packed in here, but we didn’t get to see it in this cut.