Review: A Private War

A Private War (15)

UK/USA 2018  110 mins  Dir: Matthew Heineman  Cast: Rosamund Pike, Tom Hollander, Jamie Dornan, Stanley Tucci, Greg Wise

Chain-smoking, hard-drinking, potty-mouthed and belligerent, celebrated Sunday Times war correspondent Marie Colvin is a gift of a role for Rosamund Pike, who may be justly aggrieved at being overlooked by the gong-givers for her ferocious performance. The first drama from documentary filmmaker Matthew Heineman, who gave us the extraordinary Cartel Land back in 2015, A Private War is not without its clichés and clunky dialogue as it hops somewhat episodically from war zone to war zone. But Pike holds the attention throughout and has a particularly winning way with spitting out the phrase “Fuck Off!” Refreshingly, there’s no cheesy movie canonisation here, as Heineman is not afraid to depict his damaged subject tumbling off the wrong side of the fearless/foolhardy tightrope.

It begins in the rubble of Homs back in 2012. Those who’ve been paying attention will know that this is where Colvin died. Only later is it revealed that the initial voiceover is her own rather than Pike’s. The film then flashes back to Sri Lanka and the grenade incident in which she lost the sight in one eye while reporting on the Tamil Tigers, causing her to adopt that distinctive eyepatch – an affectation which she is shown resisting (“I’m not a fucking pirate!”). Back in the UK to pick up awards for her reporting, the restless, driven, unhappily childless and increasingly alcoholic Colvin struggles to adjust, has relationships with unsuitable men and proves particularly crap at using computers. She’s at home only in war zones, where this pig-headed reporter’s tough-as-old-combat-boots disdain for the ‘babysitters’ who herd embedded hacks around lead her to take considerable risks in pursuit of the truth. On the trail of a mass grave in Fallujah, she resourcefully uses her gym card to pose as an aid worker. Along the way, Colvin teams up with photographer Paul Conroy (Dornan, taking a breather from Fifty Shades flagellation), who will be with her when she dies.

Tom Hollander has a fairly thankless role as a rather unbelievable exasperated, protective editor who tries to talk Colvin out of taking risks while bathing in the reflected glory of her exclusive reports. But the film belongs to Pike, who’s riveting as the hunched, PTSD-afflicted reporter – tormented by what she’s witnessed but compelled and, the film dares to suggest, perhaps a little thrilled to witness the horrors of war. When she asserts that human stories are more important than the politics of conflict, it’s hard not to be swept along by her bravery and commitment while simultaneously nursing a nagging doubt: Really? Are you quite sure about that?

Drawing on his own extensive experiences in danger zones, Heineman is adept at placing the viewer in the heart of the action, though he undermines the tension a little too often by intercutting with Colvin’s life back home. But A Private War really tightens its grip during the final 30 minutes, when she and Conroy make their way through bombed-out Homs – as close a vision of hell on earth as you’re likely to get – to tell the world that the targets are civilians rather than terrorists. As the end nears while she continues to report live, Conroy tells her not to use her satellite phone, which can be tracked by drones. The warning is even more chilling given that it was definitively established just a few weeks ago that this was how she was targeted by Assad.