“...the film as a whole is amateurish and ungainly, can’t find a consistent tone, is too long, is overladen with music that tries to paraphrase the story and is photographed with too many beauty shots that slow the progress....”
That is what Ebert says and it is not true so it is indeed trashing the film.
Obviously he thought it was true. That’s the thing about aesthetics. People often disagree.