houghtonconnor17

Despite the title, this film mainly revolves around war correspondents road tripping around the U. S. A. Expecting their press credentials to shield them from bullets. There is very little in the way of war depicted.

The acting is passable for the most part, but the young actress playing the budding journalist is very annoying and unconvincing as a person. The story creeps along with few real notable scenes and anyone looking for anything approaching a war film definitely needs to look elsewhere. While the action picks up in the second half, it is definitely not worth the wait.

While the glacial pace and indifferent character development (despite what feels like hours of seeing the same faces) are the main pain points, there is one other good reason to be annoyed.

The civil war depicted in the film makes no logical sense. The battle lines are fuzzy and nonsensical until we approach the end of the film and no real clear definition is offered of the players or their motives. It is hinted that there are a few different blocs struggling for control of the country, but no clear definition of the belligerents, why they are fighting, or what the are fighting for is offered.

In the end, we are asked to care about a handful of narcissistic and often idiotic characters stuck in the middle of a war that makes no sense between combatants who have no real aims or purpose.

Do yourself a favor and give this one a skip.

I fail to grasp how most critics love this movie; the film basically fails at everything that it tries to accomplish. What starts out as an interesting premise is almost immediately cast aside for a three stooges style Russian mafia tangent that never pans out. The film is rife with plot holes and has no main character with any sort of redeemable quality. Pike, the 'lioness,' preys solely on defenseless people and yet we are for some reason supposed to be rooting for her. Unfortunately, the competition is so inept (and awful as well) that there is no way to root for them either.

The acting in itself was not the main problem, but there is no way to reconcile the characters' actions in the beginning of the movie with the decisions they arrive at toward the end. Rosamund Pike also really does not convince in the evil protagonist role, partially because it is not a part that she can fully carry but also just because of poor screenwriting, dialogue, and direction. Dinklage, Dianne West, and Chris Messina all put in strong performances, but they are either limited (in the case of West and Messina) or inconsistent in the case of Dinklage' character. The rest of the supporting cast is pretty forgettable.

This movie tries so desperately to portray strong female characters, but does so in an absurd and haphazard fashion. All of the 'strong' moments for Pike's character revolve almost entirely around either incomprehensible ineptness on the part of the male characters she is fighting against or her being allowed to do whatever she wants by a hapless judge. She never shows any true physical strength, intellectual rigor, or strength of character; it is always outside forces or superhuman suspensions of belief that move the story forward rather than a brilliant or impressive plan of her own.

In the end, it would be difficult for anyone to pull off the anti-hero elder abuser, but Rosamund Pike is not the one to pioneer that role and it does not help that the toolbox she was given is so limited and superficial. It is a shame that such an interesting premise is ruined by such terrible casting, directing, and screenwriting decisions.