STAR RATING: ***** Saturday Night **** Friday Night *** Friday Morning ** Sunday Night * Monday Morning
Colonel Katherine Powell (Helen Mirren) is drafted to military HQ, after intelligence confirms reports that a suicide bombing mission that could take out up to eighty people at a shopping mall is soon to go ahead in Nairobi, Kenya. The evidence is credible enough in her eyes, and those of her colleague Lieutenant General Benson (Alan Rickman) to launch an air strike on the terrorist plotters before they carry out their plan, but when a young girl sets up a bread stall around the target zone, American pilot Steve Watts (Aaron Paul) finds himself compromised, and Colonel Powell is thrust into a complex situation where she has to take opinions down the chain of command.
In the modern age, with the terrorist threat level at severe, and attacks being thwarted around the globe almost daily, you have to wonder what's going on behind the scenes to keep us all safe, and hope that those responsible have the ability to make the right decisions, and don't abuse the position unnecessarily. But the thing you cannot forget is, they all are only human, and are in a position not many of us could handle. Eye in the Sky hones in on one such scenario, and gives us a riveting insight into the sort of situation that could unfold.
This is not some wistful, happy ever after tale, this is a depiction of the real life cost of war, and the film isn't afraid to lay bare the nitty gritty of real life tough decisions and the hard, brutal consequences they have. Director Gavin Hood manages to wrap us up in the situation as if it's happening right in front of us, and the result is a genuinely suspenseful, intelligent and unpredictable thriller of the sort you just never see as much of nowadays, where everything seems to be more about style than substance. There are no easy answers, and everyone is caught up in an unenviable place, where every reaction/outcome is morally complex, the result of being in such an impossible state of affairs.
Performances wise, in a role that its all too obvious would usually be played by a man, Mirren owns the lead role, displaying the sort of steely eyed, no nonsense grit that gives it such conviction regardless of gender, and in what we all now know was his last role, Rickman leaves us on a high note, delivering the sour, clear cutting persona we all knew him for, and so well. A supporting cast including Paul and a host of others offer dependable leverage.
This is one of the best, most rewarding and pleasantly surprising thrillers I've seen in a long time, and I'd urge you to see it. *****
Colonel Katherine Powell (Helen Mirren) is drafted to military HQ, after intelligence confirms reports that a suicide bombing mission that could take out up to eighty people at a shopping mall is soon to go ahead in Nairobi, Kenya. The evidence is credible enough in her eyes, and those of her colleague Lieutenant General Benson (Alan Rickman) to launch an air strike on the terrorist plotters before they carry out their plan, but when a young girl sets up a bread stall around the target zone, American pilot Steve Watts (Aaron Paul) finds himself compromised, and Colonel Powell is thrust into a complex situation where she has to take opinions down the chain of command.
In the modern age, with the terrorist threat level at severe, and attacks being thwarted around the globe almost daily, you have to wonder what's going on behind the scenes to keep us all safe, and hope that those responsible have the ability to make the right decisions, and don't abuse the position unnecessarily. But the thing you cannot forget is, they all are only human, and are in a position not many of us could handle. Eye in the Sky hones in on one such scenario, and gives us a riveting insight into the sort of situation that could unfold.
This is not some wistful, happy ever after tale, this is a depiction of the real life cost of war, and the film isn't afraid to lay bare the nitty gritty of real life tough decisions and the hard, brutal consequences they have. Director Gavin Hood manages to wrap us up in the situation as if it's happening right in front of us, and the result is a genuinely suspenseful, intelligent and unpredictable thriller of the sort you just never see as much of nowadays, where everything seems to be more about style than substance. There are no easy answers, and everyone is caught up in an unenviable place, where every reaction/outcome is morally complex, the result of being in such an impossible state of affairs.
Performances wise, in a role that its all too obvious would usually be played by a man, Mirren owns the lead role, displaying the sort of steely eyed, no nonsense grit that gives it such conviction regardless of gender, and in what we all now know was his last role, Rickman leaves us on a high note, delivering the sour, clear cutting persona we all knew him for, and so well. A supporting cast including Paul and a host of others offer dependable leverage.
This is one of the best, most rewarding and pleasantly surprising thrillers I've seen in a long time, and I'd urge you to see it. *****