Pike plays Marie Colvin, a woman who hates war yet is addicted to it, in a most compelling way. Pike's classical beauty will always hold my attention but she nailed a woman living in a man's world who wanted to make war personal for everyone. In Sri Lanka, a grenade took her left eye and shaped the beginnings of a world-class case of PTSD. Her subsequent stints in Lybia and Syria filled her with more demons than her alcoholism could fight. Jamie Dornan became her photographer and did his best to watch over her physical and mental self. Tom Hollander was her caring and manipulating editor at the Sunday Times and Stanley Tucci became a brief love interest.
Like many films over the past few years, PTSD is a front and center character as it turns Colvin into an addict and starts to destroy her overall health. There are several scenes that may awaken your own PTSD with the amped-up gunfire and rocket attacks.
This is a top-shelf effort from the story, to the acting, and the production. This is a biopic done with a razor's edge.
3.5 wonks for the story, Pike and Hollander
1 wank for overplaying her alcoholism down to dingy teeth
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Topic - 'A Private War': Making it personal . . . - Billy Wonka 14:26:43 11/17/18 (0)