The story dwells on one single operation in Kenya – primarily focusing on the moral questions regarding whether or not an international anti-terrorist strike team should destroy a building in which suicide bombers are preparing an attack. A little girl who lives locally is selling bread for her mother within the proposed impact zone and would be harmed if the strike went ahead. But refusing to act might allow the loss of many more civilian lives.
It’s a little hammy – especially Alan Rickman, who only ever seems able to act one kind of character. In fact I wondered if it was drawn from a play, such is the oddly stagey way it’s written and filmed.
Helen Mirren is passable as UK military intelligence officer Colonel Katherine Powell, but she doesn’t get to spark off anyone because – like the other stars – she’s filmed in isolation at a different location from everyone else. Perhaps it’s this “remote” feeling that denies the film dynamism. That said, the simple question of whether or not the little girl will be harmed keeps you hooked until the end.
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