War Story

For one to enjoy any cinematic experience one should have some back ground as to what the characters are going through and the reason for this post traumatic behavior. Watching the main character spend 15 minutes of screen time just rearranging a hotel room and experiencing some kind of self discovery of injuries without any idea of a background to the story is rather boring. To the very end when the credits were rolling, one is wondering as to what the Plot was and what's the end. Total waste of time. The Screen play, the Direction, the Cinematography are all rather amateurish in the garb of artistic cinema. Surely a great story told in a most haphazard way. What it could have been and what it ended in.

Watched three quarters of the movie before coming to the conclusion that looking at the inside of my eyelids would be more entertaining and that's exactly what I expect most people will end up doing if they are unfortunate enough to see this fatuous non-event. I kept hoping for Ben Kingsley to arrive and inject something into the movie, like perhaps a storyline, some rhyme or reason for following a woman round with a camera to no end. I didn't get to see him, as unfortunately I nodded off more than once and when I came to, I decided to turn it off. I am bewildered as to why anyone would spend money and effort making such a piece of crap. I can only imagine that one day someone woke up on a lovely sunny morning, with birds chirping, children playing and a feeling that all was good in the world and then thought "Karma's a bitch so I'll now have to spend my time and other people's hard earned cash making the dullest movie I can think of"! Shame on everyone involved, as none of them had the integrity to say "Stop it!" at any point.

The protagonist here obviously has PTSD, or something very similar. Despite it being difficult to garner sympathy for her, she's often almost rude, imperious, a little selfish, you quickly know the reason why, and that why becomes even clearer the more you watch. She also has an irritating sense of entitlement, or perhaps in her grief she's unconsciously looking to be challenged or caught out. That's a difficult line to walk. She's also a tourist. It's as a concerned tourist perhaps that she attaches herself to another person likely also with PTSD, and more problems than that. That's when the film begins to make sense, when it finds a raison d'être beyond an interesting character study. Ships in the night, or the other side of love? This is definitely an arthouse indie film, but it has some technical aspects that make it worth the watch. One is the Directors ability to follow a character at shoulder level for some distance, as if the audience has become a companion. And then there is the use of background blur, which is also interesting. And the players themselves are superbly acted. War Story deserves a lot more than its low score I noticed just before I wrote this.

I think this film deserves more than the stars it has accrued. I believe this score is just due to lack of reviews (by anyone with a brain...ha ha) . It's VERY Bleak but compelling, believable and well acted. This film is looks beautiful and the musical score is gorgeous. Catherine Keener is brilliantly cast in the role of this wasted woman who still has the tenacity to try. Light Saturday night movie with popcorn this is not. From the title you might think there will be conflict and violence but you'll be disappointed if that's what you are looking for. This film is dramatic and poignant and very thought provoking. The themes of post traumatic stress, depression and friendship were very well portrayed for me.

I am very surprised to see that the film has such a low score (4,9 at the time this review is written) and gets negative to mediocre reviews from most critics and viewers.

Yes, this is not an enjoyable film. But it is so for a reason! It's the story of a traumatized war photographer, told from her point of view. And the way the camera tells the story stays definitely true to this character's confusion, denial and pain.

The highlights are Keener's performance and the beautifully minimalist score by Dave Eggar and Amy Lee.

I'm sure Jackson knew that this style of filmmaking is highly unpopular, especially in the blockbuster-driven and feel-good-indie-film-filled US. I give him additional kudos for deciding to go for it anyway.