I never have a problem with long movies that hold my attention (i.e. The Hunger Games: Catching Fire), but there seems to be a growing amount of two and a half hour movies out there that fail to do just that. Despite Oscar-worthy performances from Idris Elba and Naomie Harris, Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom desperately needs a shorter journey to its inevitable conclusion.

It's hard to make a movie like Titanic or Lincoln or Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom, when everyone who enters the movie theater literally knows how it's going to end. We know the Titanic sinks. We know that Booth kills Lincoln at Ford's Theater. We know that Nelson Mandela rises from oppression to be elected South Africa's president.

The task facing movies like this illuminating the events leading up to that ending, be it fictional or factual. Titanic succeeded (immensely) because it put an inventive spin on a tale we have known for centuries, highlighting two lovers whose paths cross on that ill-fated vessel. What I believe hurts Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom is that it may be too accurate, cramming way too much of Mandela's life into this narrative journey instead of creating a more concise path to the freedom we know is eventually earned.

One of the better aspects of William Nicholson's script is the crossing arcs of Idris Elba's Nelson Mandela and Naomie Harris' Winnie Mandela. We see Nelson at the beginning as a lawyer who rises up against South Africa's unjust laws, using violence and other forceful means to get his point across. Conversely, towards the end of the film, as Nelson prepares for his impending release from his 27-year-stint in prison, he has transformed into an humble man of peace, while Winnie eventually becomes the revolutionary Nelson once was, as the people begin to rise up along with her in growing numbers.

Idris Elba and Naomie Harris both deserve Oscar nominations for their fantastic performances, especially Elba, whose physical transformation from a strapping, boisterous young man to the stoic voice of peace his people rallied around, is truly amazing. However, by the time this film crawls to the finish line, with a final 45 minutes filled to the brim with bureaucratic meetings that just dragged the ending further and further away, you're more glad that it's over, than reveling in this pair of amazing performances.

Director Justin Chadwick (The Other Boeyln Girl) seemed so focused on nailing down factual landmarks in Mandela's life that it undermines what he actually achieved, by boring us with minutiae of how he became South Africa's president, rather than showing us the impact it had on the nation's people itself. On the other hand, Chadwick does have a visually striking style, using cinematographer Lol Crawley's amazing images to capture this area of the world, but even the beauty they capture is diminished by a story that never wants to end.

While I surely hope to hear Idris Elba and Naomie Harris' names when the Oscar nominations are announced in January, Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom, proves that longer isn't always better in this day and age where two and a half hour movies are becoming more commonplace.