The Situation
Directed by Philip Haas
The good outweighs the bad in this political drama set in present-day Iraq. Hastily produced on an independent budget and written by first-time screenwriter Wendell Steavenson, a female journalist who spent a year in Iraq from 2003-2004, director Philip Haas has pulled off the first dramatic feature about the ongoing debacle in Iraq. There’s an eerie sense of novelty (which must be akin to that of watching one’s first talkie) while taking in dramatized scenes of pool parties in American greenzones, Iraqi characters with normal jobs, and the triteness of the opinion amongst them that life was better under Hussein.
Connie Nielsen (seeming here to be a poor man’s Cate Blanchett) leads an international cast as an American journalist with a heart for the civilians. The myriad perspectives, motives and sympathies the film juggles reflect the war’s convoluted state of affairs: we see the frustration of the American CIA over how intelligence is gained — and just as simultaneously altered — and there’s even time for a vague love triangle between Nielsen’s character, her American boyfriend and an Iraqi photographer. But don’t bring tissues for the romance.
Opens February 2 at Angelika Film Center
Connie Nielsen (seeming here to be a poor man’s Cate Blanchett) leads an international cast as an American journalist with a heart for the civilians. The myriad perspectives, motives and sympathies the film juggles reflect the war’s convoluted state of affairs: we see the frustration of the American CIA over how intelligence is gained — and just as simultaneously altered — and there’s even time for a vague love triangle between Nielsen’s character, her American boyfriend and an Iraqi photographer. But don’t bring tissues for the romance.
Opens February 2 at Angelika Film Center
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