One of my favorite actresses, Catherine Keener, stars as a war photographer who recently endured a brutal detainment in Libya who holes up in Sicily to come to terms with her ordeal. All this happens not far from the home of her former lover and mentor (Ben Kingsley). Soon she crosses paths with a Tunisian migrant in need of an abortion and safe passage to France, who bears a striking resemblance to a Libyan girl she photographed just before her capture.As much as I wanted to like this film, I just was booooorrrrd outta my gord up in here! Like I said, Catherine is one of my all-time favs, but her performance wasn't enough to save this schnooze-fest. Good performances all around, just needed a little more in the way of storyline I'd say-?? Marginal thumbs down...

For one to enjoy any cinematic experience one should have some back ground as to what the characters are going through and the reason for this post traumatic behavior. Watching the main character spend 15 minutes of screen time just rearranging a hotel room and experiencing some kind of self discovery of injuries without any idea of a background to the story is rather boring. To the very end when the credits were rolling, one is wondering as to what the Plot was and what's the end. Total waste of time. The Screen play, the Direction, the Cinematography are all rather amateurish in the garb of artistic cinema. Surely a great story told in a most haphazard way. What it could have been and what it ended in.

I expected an entirely different film when I decided to watch War Story, but I feel some of the reviews have been a little unfair. This film's biggest flaw is being wrongfully advertised as a thriller, as it is very slow-paced and it can easily bore an audience, specially when they're not prepared to sit through 90 minutes of long scenes of the lead character reflecting on her traumas, life, death, etc. But this is all intentional and I believe well justified in the end, War Story's highlights are the beautiful music score (Which I'll admit was the reason I watched in the first place), a brilliant performance by Catherine Keener, and her ability to carry a film with not much dialogue but a lot of visual references, you can really see and feel Lee's pain and her suffering in some of the most subtle body language and expressions, and her frustration too. If you are expecting a violent, brutal, thriller you'll be disappointed, but as a slow-paced, believable and grievous drama that feels accurately portrayed and believable, you will appreciate it and by the end of the film you'll be left with a sense of full-circle closure.

I am very surprised to see that the film has such a low score (4,9 at the time this review is written) and gets negative to mediocre reviews from most critics and viewers.Yes, this is not an enjoyable film. But it is so for a reason! It's the story of a traumatized war photographer, told from her point of view. And the way the camera tells the story stays definitely true to this character's confusion, denial and pain.The highlights are Keener's performance and the beautifully minimalist score by Dave Eggar and Amy Lee.I'm sure Jackson knew that this style of filmmaking is highly unpopular, especially in the blockbuster-driven and feel-good-indie-film-filled US. I give him additional kudos for deciding to go for it anyway.