This is a hard movie to comment on, because it chronicles something of importance, but at the same time never seems to dig any deeper than surface level events.
It's an entire movie about Marie Colvin, in which we learn very little about Marie Colvin. What drove her? Who knows.
Rosamond Pike's performance is good, but again keeps us at quite a distance from actually getting to know the character. This is clearly intentional. I just don't think it worked - for me.
This movie tries but fails to establish a meaningful relationship between the central character and the horrific conflicts she's drawn to, but we never learn why. And we don't really gain any insight into the people whose lives are being decimated by civil war.
There are movies that are far more effective at chronicling the extent of human misery, and the horrors of war. This one did not end up enhancing my perspective in a meaningful way.
Not a patch on Under the Wire but still pretty solid
A Private War is a fine film, but it's nowhere near the quality of Christopher Martin's exceptional Under the Wire (2018), a documentary about Marie Colvin's last assignment, and how her photographer, Paul Conroy, got out of Syria after her death. Wisely, screenwriter Arash Amel and director Martin Heineman chose not to tell the same story as Martin, focusing more on Colvin's life in London and her previous assignments, and concluding with her death. With this in mind, A Private War definitely has its own merits, as it deals with elements of Colvin's life not touched on by Martin. Avoiding hagiography, Heineman doesn't shy away from some of the darker aspects of Colvin's character (her refusal to accept she was suffering from PTSD, her alcoholism, her acerbity, her poor treatment of pretty much everyone she came into contact with, her appalling hygiene), with the film more interested in asking why she did what she did rather than simply showing what she did. Part-biopic, part-journalistic drama, part-war movie, if A Private War has a salient theme, it's that of The Truth and the price that some people are willing to pay to ensure that that Truth is known. It's by no means perfect, with some awful dialogue, scenes so on-the-nose you might need rhinoplasty after watching them, and an uneven central performance. However, it's a respectfully told story, the material is treated in a suitably serious manner, and historical authenticity always paramount.
For my complete review, please visit: https://boxd.it/E33Ql
It was not an action flick, but a film that depicted the tenuous and difficult life of a celebrated foreign correspondent. It was not easy to watch, with its realism and unforgiving nature helping with engagement. In addition, Rosamund Pike and the entire cast gave incredible performances that helped this film in its slower areas, which is where the acting shined the most. As a whole, after finishing the film, all I can say is that Marie Colvin was a certified legend.
Some biopics have to stretch out the material they're based on to get enough for a movie. Others, like this, feel like they could have given you much, much more. I knew bits and pieces about Marie Colvin, but not much beyond that. In this overview of her more famous reporting years, you get little bites of her and her work, but I found myself often craving a bit more. In an era of bloated runtimes, it may sound odd to ask for it, but I would have been just fine with another 30-40 minutes to get some more depth, context, and background on the various time periods covered. Rosamund Pike and Jamie Dornan are both quite good in their roles, and the supporting cast is fine, but feel a bit one-note at times. In a time when reporters are reviled by a subset of society that think they're all hacks making up "fake news", it's good to watch something that reminds you that they're often truth seekers and explorers who want to discover what is hidden or unknown.
A Private War is gritty and raw character drama about Sunday Times journalist Marie Colvin. The film follows the last ten years of Colvin’s life reporting on conflicts in Sri Lonka, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Syria, along with her struggles with PTSD and substance abuse. Rosamund Pike gives an incredible performance, really transforming herself into her character. However, the script is rather weak and doesn’t do a particularly good job at getting at what drove her to do the work she did, or chose the places she did, or what made her voice unique from others. Yet while it has some weaknesses, A Private War is a powerful and provocative film about the life of a war correspondent.
She set herself on collision course with destiny, a horrific kind of destiny. So much to think through.
This might be a movie about a woman who did important things. Truth be told I never heard about her before. Sadly, this movie doesn't want to make me know more. She comes across as a very obnoxious, un-likeable person. Her motives are not very clear. Her past, background story - which could have shed some light as to why she is that way - is obscure. The movie goes to fast back and forth from the combat zones to "normal" life. The timejumps are to big.
And than there is Rosamund Pike. I have seen her last couple of movies and she did not convince me in any one of them. I know she's been nominated a lot but I think, in regards to this movie, she is trying way to hard to sell this character.
Overall I lost interest in the story and the person about halfway through the movie. I watched it to the end but that's about it. I wouldn't say it's a bad movie as such, just one of those that don't reach me.
A profound telling. From the very beginning of this film the writer and director make us aware something is coming. Each piece of Marie Colvin's story is measured against a countdown to Homs. As neither British or American (nor a reader of print media) I was unaware of Marie Colvin's journalism, so the details of her life were unknown to me, but, I knew Homs was the destination of this film. I was a participant in a journey. Matthew Heinman, who, as a documentarian, had taken his camera into the midst of war ravished lives, completely transported me into the heart of darkness. Rosamund Pike's Marie Colvin was the fulcrum of that drive. When, inevitably, we collided with the horror of Homs, we were entirely present. In the theatre there was dead silent and as the credits rolled, none of us wanted to move. We knew we had witnessed something profound. In Canada, we have outstanding female journalists (#adriearsenault #NahlahAyed) who go into the heart of human misery to report, back to us, the truth as they experience it. This film made me ask, what duty do we owe to them for the wounds they bear for us all? I give this film a 9 (important) out of 10. [BioPic of a War Correspondent]
Shout by Lee Brown Barrow Movie BuffVIP 3BlockedParent2019-12-01T21:35:37Z
Marie Colvin was a brave woman, but the film never truly gets under her skin. A documentary might have been better, especially considering the director's previous credentials. It's not a bad film. however, and it is worth a watch, if only for another painful reminder of the horrors of the Syrian conflict.