Mamabadger56 Juliette Binoche was great as always in this mostly interesting, but occasionally slow and pompous, movie about a woman dealing with conflicting claims on her time, her attention, and her life. Rebecca (Binoche) is a photojournalist who covers some of the world's most dangerous and unstable regions. She is passionate about her work and believes it makes a difference. When she is almost killed while covering an event in Afghanistan, her normally supportive husband objects to the toll her work is taking on himself and their children. She agrees to leave dangerous assignments behind, but is torn between her family obligations and her intense drive to continue her work. This leads to an eventual crisis in her family.The film catches our interest right away, with a fascinating scene in which Rebecca is shown photographing strange events in Afghanistan. It turns out to be solemn preparations for a suicide bombing by a young woman. Rebecca remains aloof, photographing the events and giving no indication of her feelings. When the bombing takes place prematurely, she is badly injured in the explosion. We get a glimpse of how obsessive Rebecca is when she drags herself from the ground to get a few more shots of the aftermath, before collapsing.The movie doesn't take sides. A woman asked to give up a successful career for the sake of her husband and children sounds, at first, unfair and patriarchal. We see how brilliant Rebecca's work has been, and how it has sometimes changed things in forgotten areas of the world. However, we gradually see the effect her many close calls have had on her two daughters, who are constantly afraid she will be killed while away on an assignment, and Rebecca acknowledges that she has an obligation to them as well. But nothing is completely one sided: even her older daughter, who was intensely angry about her mother's risk taking, comes to respect Rebecca's work and mention it with pride during a school project. The family scenes, although lovely and affectionate, tend to drag a bit. Maybe we're seeing it through Rebecca's eyes: she clearly loves her husband and children, but her strongest feelings are directed toward her work. Eventually, Rebecca comes to the painful conclusion that she has to continue with her work, even at the expense of her marriage. Yet even that decision is not without ambivalence; on a new assignment, Rebecca finds herself facing an ethical quandary, when she questions whether has an obligation to try and stop an evil act, rather than just observe and document the incident. The film ends before she finds an answer.

olastensson13 War correspondents, what does their work lead to? Is it just conflict porn to the morning coffee or can what they do make us react? And act?Juliette Binoche follows a suicide bomber in Kabul, from preparations to explosion. But is she somewhat responsible for what happens? She starts to think so. And she also has a family. Has she some responsibility for what's happening to them?That's the weak part of this film. Not that the script is bad, but the family conflict is a little too expected, from its up to its down. The most important question remains. What international media means to the world.

athena-j-dennis Juliette Binoche is one of the finest actresses of the past few decades. None of her beauty and vividness have faded with the advancing years. She brings to this role, as with all of her other roles a lot of heartfelt emotion. She plays a war photographer who is at war with herself about her family responsibilities versus her commitment to her dangerous occupation. Nicolas Costas Waldau is brilliant as her husband. A much more appealing character than his Game of Thrones one. The young actresses who play her daughters are also wonderful. One thing I will say is that it's frustrating to watch her put herself in immediate danger. Especially seeing as she has such an idyllic home life with such a beautiful husband, children and a nice cottage in rural Ireland. I won't spoil it for you. It is a wonderful movie, if a little frustrating.

koen_smit Beautiful acting, intense story and a roller-coaster of emotions. That kind of sums up what I felt about this movie after seeing it. Juliette Binoche portraits a passionate woman who is torn by the love for her work and the love for her family. Being a war-photographer, her safety is constantly at risk and her passion to show what is happening puts her in even more danger. Her husband cannot accept her neglect of the responsibility she has as a wife and a mother of two daughters. She chooses her family over her work and tries to deal with her choice. But it does tear her apart.Her husband obviously sees this as well, and suggest to her to take her adolescent daughter to a 'safe' part of Africa to shoot some pictures of a refugee camp and to bond with her. It also gives her daughter some first-hand experience for her school-project about Africa. But her passion takes over when the camp is overrun by a trigger-happy tribe and she smells the sweet scent of danger she loves so much.Juliette Binoche has created a beautiful multi-layered character. You may not agree with her choices but you do understand them. Nikolaj Coaster-Waldau does a great job as the frustrated husband who loves his wife so much, but can't live with the knowledge that one day she might not be coming home from work. The script is smartly written. The directions keep you on the edge of your seat because it never gets boring and you constantly feel there's something underneath needing to come to the surface at some time. Add some beautiful camera-work and this might as well be one of the best movies I've seen this year. It left me with a punch in my stomach and a lump in my throat. 10/10