I fully, completely and utterly disagree.
This movie could have been an extremely good one. The premise is great, a person juggling her family life and her existential need to show the world what is wrong. The cinematography was brillant, some perfect shots in this. The movie could have focused on the reaction of the environment (we only see the reaction of the husband, but how about friends, other family etc.), or could have focused what it is like to struggle with what in essence is an unconstrollable addiction... Yet we get a totally oversentimental and moral movie....
On top of that, the casting was wrong (I just did not believe Coster-Waldau and Binoche as a couple, nor a Dane and a Frenchwoman having two super-Irish children) and the plot and especially the dialogue are very contrived. But that sentimentality, damn, that fully destroyed what could have been a wonderful movie. When she returned from the airport to watch her daughter's presentation, I cringed in my seat and had to resist myself phisically from walking away...
Good ingredients, no recipe, terrible cake. What a shame.
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DoctorPotter
10 years ago
Wow, you looked at the film in a very odd light. The message of the film was not based around the relationship, that was added in to help push the story along instead of constant graphics from the photo recollections of the incidents. Hell, the only real relationship I even took a notice to was the mother/daughter relationship and how it was handled during and after the Africa incident, ending with a fantastic tribute from the daughter at school. The message was what war can do to people, and the realities of it, rather than what's glamorized on television. It was how someone can be affected in different ways, as seen by each member of the family (excluding maybe the younger daughter) after someone witnesses such horrifying moments, and how it affects their own life.
Great men are forged in fire; it is the privilege of lesser men to light the flame
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SwissCheeze
9 years ago
I have to agree. This film has some great scenes, in particular the opening and closing scene. The closing scene - wow, the emotion and a particular great moment for Binoche to show her acting chops. But, overall the movie is ham handed and far too melodramatic. The dialogue was also atrocious and NONE of the on screen characters have any believable chemistry. It could've been a great movie but instead it skims slightly above lifetime tv movies. Its not terrible, its just mediocre.
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