A Private War

First Hit: First Hit: Rosamund Pike (as Marie Colvin) gives a deeply complex performance of a war correspondent who brought personal stories of war victims to the forefront.

War isn’t just about the leaders of countries with idealistic differences and the soldiers of those leaders; it is about the victims of this conflict. Colvin was a committed pioneer in going into conflicts and documenting, in newspaper articles, the stories of the families, wives, mothers and children of wars around the world.

The film begins with her covering the conflict in Homs, Syria, and then segues to some of the previous wars she covered in her career. Sri Lanka is where she lost sight in her left eye. This causes her to begin to wear a black patch that became part of her persona. Then the film takes us on tour with Colvin as she goes to various war zones in the world to see how she covered these wars and how she uncovered her powerful stories.

What we learn is that she was fearless in action although she felt fear. She was incredibly rebellious against authority whether it be the publication she wrote for, or with the leaders she interviewed. Watch her poignant questions to Libya’s Muammar Mohammed Abu Minyar Gaddafi, commonly known as Colonel Gaddafi. An outstanding scene.

Early on in her investigations she had difficulty finding a photographer that would work well with her. Then she happened on Paul Conroy (Jamie Dornan) who became a wonderful companion and friend to Colvin.

As for Colvin’s personal life, we see early on her defensive, reactive nature towards her former husband and people really close to her. She allowed few to get close and preferred to be harsh and flippant to the people who cared about her. She drank heavily (“started drinking at age 15”), and suffered from PTSD. For a short time, she took up residence in a hospital to help her deal and process the horrible events she lived through.

What we don’t get a deep dive on is Marie’s background. I kept wondering why she was so rebellious and reckless with her own life. Not only did she put herself in positions where she could be killed, she smoked incessantly and drank excessively.

However, through all this self-destruction she was able to relate to mothers (although she didn’t have children herself), and families with deep compassion which came out in her writing.

Pike was fantastic. When, in the credits, we hear the real Colvin’s voice, we notice that Pike got her voice perfectly. Dornan was excellent as Colvin’s photographer. It’s nice to see him in a non-villain role. Tom Hollander (playing Sean Ryan) as Colvin’s foreign correspondent boss was excellent. It must have been difficult to manage someone who had such a strong will while looking out for his reporter's health and welfare. Stanley Tucci as Tony Shaw, Colvin’s late in life lover was strong as the guy who accepted Colvin as she was. Corey Johnson (as Norm Coburn) a photographer that was always first one in and last one out of a conflict was fantastic. Nikki Amuka-Bird as Colvin's closest friend Rita Williams was wonderful. She was frankly supportive of Colvin. Marie Brenner wrote a strong script allowing Matthew Heineman to deliver this complex story in an engaging and powerful way.

Overall: I wanted more background about Colvin, yet I was blown away by the depth of the story of her in war zones.

Beirut

First Hit:  I really liked the way this film was put together and came to fruition.

Some people don’t like Tony Gilroy films because he doesn’t lead the story with obviousness. The script for Beirut is the same way. However, I like his films (the Bourne films, Duplicity, Michael Clayton to name a few) for this very reason. Viewers go on a ride and must trust the storyteller and director to bring the film home satisfyingly.

In this film, there are two different time periods. The first one is the 1970’s and Beirut is a melting pot of people and religions. It opens with Mason Skiles (Jon Hamm) hosting a party in his Beirut home. As part of the US Government, there is a senator and other diplomats present. A young boy named Karim has been partially adopted by Mason and his wife.

Government agents come to collect Karim because his notorious radical brother Jassim/Rami (Ben Affan) is loose and they hope to use Karim to capture him. In the battle, Government plan goes bad, Mason’s wife is killed, and Karim is taken by Islamic radicals. The film then moves forward ten years.

Mason is a drunk, back in the United States, and mediating union/management negotiations. Sandy Crowder (Rosamund Pike) comes to collect Mason because Cal Riley (Mark Pellegrino) has been abducted by a Islamic group and there’s been a request for Mason to negotiate his release.

Mason reluctantly goes back to Beirut and the flood of feelings come back from his time there some ten years earlier.

The negotiations are tough and there are many people, even in the US Government, who have different agendas with this issue. In essence, it is now Karim (Idir Chender) who is negotiating for his brother’s release and they're using Cal as the bait.

The way the films shows the 70’s was perfect. I loved the detail used. Everything from the hair styles to the sideburns on Mason. The film quality also reflected the time, with the tint and style. I loved the way the audience falls into the story and isn’t given large hints or steps that telegraph the film’s direction.

Hamm was fantastic. His portrayal of the caring loving husband and then to the drunk who cares and doesn’t care is phenomenal. Affan was strong in this minimal role. Chender was excellent as the older version of Karim. Pellegrino was very strong as the kidnapped US Government service representative. Pike was excellent as the tough, thoughtful, and daringly intelligent agent. Tony Gilroy wrote an outstanding script. I loved how it slowly comes together in the end. Brad Anderson did a wonderful job of making this script come alive.

Overall: This was an excellent film and expressed the complications of the middle east quite well.

7 Days in Entebbe

First Hit: The film creates intrigue and an artsy buildup but the ending falls flat and was unsatisfying.

Being old enough to remember the actual incident as it unfolded, at 26 I didn’t have enough world-wide or middle-east education to understand it.

However, today, I better understand the Palestinian Israeli struggle. In seeing this film, I was hoping for a better understanding of the events that took place forty-two years ago. Here, Brigitte Kuhlmann (Rosamund Pike) and Wilfried Bose (Daniel Bruhl) are two idealistic Germans who assist two Hamas Palestinian freedom fighters (aka: "terrorists"), in hijacking an Air France plane filled with passengers of all nationalities, 83 of them Jewish.

The hijacked plane, with permission from Idi Amin Dada (Nonso Anozie) the President of Uganda, lands at the old airstrip en Entebbe Uganda. Ushering the passengers off the plane and into the old dirty dilapidated terminal, the hijackers begin to negotiate with the Prime Minister of Israel, Yitzhak Rabin (Lior Ashkenazi). The ransom for the return of the plane and all the passengers and crew was $5M and the release of 53 Palestinian and pro-Palestinian militants 40 of whom were in Israel’s custody.

Rabin's Defense Secretary, Shimon Peres (Eddie Marsan), was a  hardliner holding the line that Israel does not negotiate for prisoners or ransoms. This is despite Rabin stating at some point in time we have to negotiate with the Palestinians and others, else they will never really flourish.

Because this is history we know what happens, Peres team successfully develops a rescue raid which eventually plays out.

The issue with this film is that they use a wonderful dance company to illustrate tension and well as back and forth scenes from the original planning of the hijacking and current scenes of the captured plane and hostage imprisonment. This part is excellent at building interest and tension, but when the big payoff comes, the details of the raid and rescue of the hostages from Entebbe, the film falters and shows little of this event and shows more of the dance company executing the dance we see them practice throughout the film.

I also thought the personal link between one of the dancers and one of the raiding Israeli soldiers was poorly developed and not defined.

Bruhl was good and interesting as the bookseller who wanted to  make a difference in the world, especially for the Palestinians. The film did share the issue of him being German taking Israeli hostages and that the world might bring up the Nazi holocaust. Pike was very strong as an obsessed woman who was fighting this cause and her own personal demons. Her intense wild-eyed stares after being up for seven days straight was excellent. Marsan was peculiarly strong. His half lidded facial expressions and being a supreme hawk, he had this “I told you so” way of getting his agenda completed. Anozie was excellent as Idi Amin. He physically imposed his Amin remarks just like I remember Amin, slightly off center and childlike. Ashkenazi was strong as Israel’s Prime Minister Rabin. His distaste for Peres’s hawk and kill only attitude was well acted. Gregory Burke wrote an engaging screenplay; however the ending was too creative for me, I wanted to see more of the actual rescue. Jose Padilha directed this with a nice touch except for the ending.

Overall: Although this was a good film, I kept wondering how close was this story to the real story.

Gone Girl

First Hit:  This was like watching two different films – the first section, a long ~2 hour segment was fascinating, the last part was a very different film and not as interesting although more pointed.

I’m really not sure why this story was created this way.

In the first two hours the audience watches Nick Dunne (Ben Affleck) squirm to try to prove his innocence of killing his missing wife. Affleck is perfect at giving the sense that he’s innocent as well as guilty all at the same time. His enigmatic personality is well used in this role because as soon as you believe he’s innocent then he does something that makes you wonder.

When the film moves to show Amy Dunne’s (Rosamund Pike) story it adds to the film greatly. However, as this section moves forward, there is a point about 2 hours into the film where I think it takes a turn too far to the left. As we watch Amy’s escape plan fail, it gets to the point where her sickness is pushed more into physicality of action.

It is at this point that her actions with Desi Collings (Neil Patrick Harris) where the second film begins. From here I was reeling from the change of view and pace of the film. And although I found the new story interesting, it was so much more upfront and in your face than the previous two hours.

Affleck is absolutely amazing as his ability to be enigmatic and be two sides of the story as required by the character. He was perfect for this part. Pike was absolutely beyond amazing. She was sublime in her ability to pull off the character she was supposed to be. She was amazingly calculated, vulnerable, steal skinned, and intellectually manipulative. Tyler Perry as lawyer Tanner Bolt was really a fun and good part of the film. Carrie Coon as Margo Dunne (Nick’s twin sister) was very good. Harris was also strong in his role. Kim Dickens and the lead detective was also very good. Gillian Flynn wrote an interesting screenplay from her own novel, however the story at the end was either too jolting or miss-directed. David Fincher directed this film and as separate parts these films were well directed, but as a single film, it was more difficult to watch the two pieces made into one film.

Overall:  For the most part this film was very good but be jarred as I was, I think the transition could have been better.

Jack Reacher

First Hit:  Cruise is Cruise which means you always know it is Cruise playing a character and because his presence is generally intense, the film is entertaining.

The film is about a young Iraqi vet who is framed for shooting 5 people on the river bank in Pittsburgh, PA. All the evidence points to him and while he is being interrogated he writes down on a piece of paper, “Get Jack Reacher”. Why?

The DA Rodin (played by Richard Jenkins), the head detective Emerson (played by David Oyelowo) and the defense attorney Helen (played by Rosamund Pike) who is also the DA’s daughter, all think he's guilty and don't understand who Jack Reacher is or why he would know anything about this case. Reacher (Cruise) lives anonymously after leaving the Army. He has no phone, car, or home. He arrives unannounced at the police station.

Helen is curious as to why he’s there and what he can do to assist the case. Reacher is a former Military Policeman and he doesn’t make mistakes. He's there because he’s the best and only the accused knows it. The accused knows that Reacher will find out the real truth. Well as you might imagine he discovers the entire plot which has to do with Russians that take over businesses.

Fairly lame plot, but Cruise surrounds himself with the best and therefore the film works, there are few mistakes so it works, but it isn’t memorable by any stretch of the imagination.

Cruise is perfect at acting this role and we always know it is Tom Cruise. This thought never left me as I watched this film. Jenkins is fine as a powerful, righteous and rich DA. Oyelowo is good as the head cop. Pike is very good as the DA's daughter and as a main character in the film. Werner Herzog is interesting as a one eyed former prisoner named "The Zec". Robert Duvall is amusing as "Cash" a shoot range owner. Christopher McQuarrie wrote and directed this unimpressive but cleanly executed film

Overall:  This is the kind of film one can sit and watch realizing there is nothing of real value but it is entertaining.