★★★★ 1/2
An excellent and affecting look at drone warfare usage and the collateral costs, and the ethical and legal calculations that go into such strikes. Helen Mirren stars as a British Colonel on the path of a Islamic militant responsible for several suicide bombings and is working with Kenyan intelligence, including an agent played by Captain Phillips star Barkhad Abdi, her own superiors, such as a General played by Alan Rickman in his last performance and the US drone pilots played by Aaron Paul and Phoebe Fox.
It's a taught and interesting thriller. Do they accept that there will be collateral damage if they take out the house where the target is ensconced? Can they justify the lives that will also be lost in the surrounding houses if it saves future lives? Will the military and political figures involved be able to get enough cover for their actions if the operation goes wrong?
This all sounds like it could be terrible dry and full of ethical discussions at a roundtable, but this all plays out very tensely as they try to make these ethical and political discussions as the operation is unfolding and new facts come it. It's harrowing and troubling and also just a little uncomfortably exciting.
Director Gavin Hood, after his Oscar win for Tsotsi in 2005, has been out in the big budget wilderness with his last few movies (the awful X-Men Origins Wolverine and Ender's Game). It's really great to see him back in the saddle with a thoughtful, smart and exciting movie like that has no easy answers. I hope he continues with his and gets another project like this to work on.
As a final note, this was an excellent piece of work for Alan Rickman to go out on. His final performance might as well be his usual excellent work and one of his final lines is delivered so damn well that it's a perfect goodbye for him.
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