Soldiers in Afghanistan, a student and a professor in a California college, and a journalist and a politician in DC cohabit Robert Redford’s triptych drama. Redford himself plays the professor, who in the most didactic segment spars (conversationally) with an unmotivated but bright history student. Though the screenplay is by Matthew Carnahan, the professor’s lines sound a lot like what the director himself might be saying to the audience at large. It’s a liberal’s case against cynicism. Meanwhile, reporter Meryl Streep is listening to a hawkish senator (Tom Cruise) explaining a new military strategy for Afghanistan. This is easily the best segment, and a perfect part for the naturally cocky Cruise, who got an Oscar nomination for his similarly slick huckster in Magnolia. When the reporter and her editor clash about whether the new tactic is front-page news or just more of the same seen through rose-colored glasses, you could be forgiven for thinking the topic was really Iraq. The scene wasn’t entirely authentic to me (the editor barely hears the facts before he starts arguing), but does point to the difficulty of telling when refraining from bias crosses over into refraining from all critical judgment.
There’s a third part where we actually see soldiers on the ground. It reminds us of the difference between plotting strategy and executing it, and mildly elaborates the other stories. However, when all is said and done, a lot gets said but nothing much happens. Either this movie, only 88 minutes, could have been even shorter, or it could have used some fleshing out of the characters and weakly linked plots. Like Carnahan’s other 2007 screenplay, The Kingdom, the movie is vast in ambition but modest in achievement.
IMDB link
reviewed 11/9/07
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