Year of Release: 2007Country of Origin: USA
Director: Robert Redford
Cast: Robert Redford, Meryl Streep, Tom Cruise
Plot outline: Injuries sustained by two special forces behind enemy lines in Afghanistan set off a sequence of events involving a senator, a journalist and a professor (IMDb).
This movie has a good director (his 1980 signature work Ordinary People won 4 Oscars - including Best Picture and Best Director, and his 1994 docudrama Quiz Show was nominated for 4 Oscars - including Best Picture and Best Director), a good cast and a good, solid, thought-provoking idea - "If you don't stand for something, you might fall for anything." But somehow the idea doesn't materialize into a real story that can really engage us on an emotional level. Robert Redford has always had a tendency to be preachy and in this movie he certainly is. Instead of realizing the idea into a real story, he only envisions a simulation of it: an ambitious, overzealous Republican senator (played by Tom Cruise) giving an interview to a skeptical, liberal journalist (played by Meryl Streep) detailing a new, brave strategy for victory in Afghanistan; two special forces ambushed on an Afghani ridge struggling to survive as Taliban forces close in; and a political science professor at a California university (played by himself) trying to reach a talented student to re-engage. A lot of lecturing about the idea, but not the real story itself.
My judgement: ** out of 4 stars
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