War Story (I) (2014)
7/10
WHAT DID THEY DO TO YOU?
5 September 2018
Warning: Spoilers
Lee (Catherine Keener) is a war correspondent, now in Sicily. She has just had a major ordeal in Libya, of which we find out the details later. She is physically bruised with a fractured jaw and broken ribs. She pops pain killers and looks at a photo of a girl holding her dead brother. She is emotionally distressed and grief stricken and has yet to move on. She hints that she was raped by her jerky reactions and "too many men."

While in Sicily she meets a Tunisian refugee (Hafsia Herzi) and wants to help her. She needs an abortion and wants to go to France. Islamic refugees don't feel welcomed, and rightly so.

That is pretty much it. We find out more of what happened in Libya, which while sad wasn't a barn burner as Ben Kinsley remarks, "These things happen" in his cameo. There are scenes in which little to nothing happens, and long real time pauses. This is not an action film, and not a lot of drama. It is a look at character of a gritty war photographer overwhelmed with what life throws at her, yet she manages.

Catherine Keener did a convincing job in what was little more than a one woman play. The slow painful drama which drags on is clearly not a film for everyone. Indeed, this is more of the type of film critics will praise while many folks may find a waste of time.

Parental Guide: F-bomb. Brief sex, brief nudity behind glass (Alessandra Librio)
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