The opening is terrific and sets up a stunning character of Marie Colvin who then is barely seen after that. This is odd, but probably the intention was to shoot her commentary later, but there would be no later for her. This is not a spoiler, btw, you know going in what will happen to her.
She's there of course and what little she did say or write while there is laboriously lingered over, really they are stretching what little they have and all it does, rather than make her more of the story, is to eat up time.
And well it all goes on too long and the pacing and visuals are too much the same to sustain interest. Some artsy shots lingering on grains of rice and insignificant items in various rooms slow the pace to a distracting crawl. Some of this stuff must have been shot later, all this is to try to make more out of not much really happening other than waiting.
It all feels a big self aggrandizing until the final 15 minutes or so. Had it been told in an hour, rather than reach for feature length it would have been better and worth it's weight as part of a larger picture of Syria, but that larger picture is never given, sad to say it seems to be made for others in the news media to experience, like preaching to the choir.
It feels like the real story isn't told, lost in the drama of the moment for the foreigners amid the most interesting and rarely gripped local doctor and a supporting local hero character--and it's not much more than a moment that our heroic team are actually in the town being heartlessly bombarded by the Syrian government. The stated purpose of the journalists there is not to be the story but to tell the story, and given the way things turned out, this movie is about exactly the opposite. Almost like a training film to show people who are about to be a war correspondent, and not very interesting if you aren't one already.
Now don't misunderstand, Syrian powers-that-be being allowed to get away with what they have been and will continue to do is crime. But I, and I'll assume, we knew that going into the film. A film with a good message and on the right side of an issue is only part of the battle of making a great film about the same things. And that's what I fault this film for.
So the set up and the pay off to the film work but the middle hour, eh. A weekly Frontline episode is more compelling and involving in the context of a larger picture that's missing here. Could make a great fiction feature where you could actually focus more on Marie Colvin during the central crisis.
She's there of course and what little she did say or write while there is laboriously lingered over, really they are stretching what little they have and all it does, rather than make her more of the story, is to eat up time.
And well it all goes on too long and the pacing and visuals are too much the same to sustain interest. Some artsy shots lingering on grains of rice and insignificant items in various rooms slow the pace to a distracting crawl. Some of this stuff must have been shot later, all this is to try to make more out of not much really happening other than waiting.
It all feels a big self aggrandizing until the final 15 minutes or so. Had it been told in an hour, rather than reach for feature length it would have been better and worth it's weight as part of a larger picture of Syria, but that larger picture is never given, sad to say it seems to be made for others in the news media to experience, like preaching to the choir.
It feels like the real story isn't told, lost in the drama of the moment for the foreigners amid the most interesting and rarely gripped local doctor and a supporting local hero character--and it's not much more than a moment that our heroic team are actually in the town being heartlessly bombarded by the Syrian government. The stated purpose of the journalists there is not to be the story but to tell the story, and given the way things turned out, this movie is about exactly the opposite. Almost like a training film to show people who are about to be a war correspondent, and not very interesting if you aren't one already.
Now don't misunderstand, Syrian powers-that-be being allowed to get away with what they have been and will continue to do is crime. But I, and I'll assume, we knew that going into the film. A film with a good message and on the right side of an issue is only part of the battle of making a great film about the same things. And that's what I fault this film for.
So the set up and the pay off to the film work but the middle hour, eh. A weekly Frontline episode is more compelling and involving in the context of a larger picture that's missing here. Could make a great fiction feature where you could actually focus more on Marie Colvin during the central crisis.