Eye In The Sky

EYE IN THE SKY

Director : Gavin Hood
Year : 2016
Genre : Thriller
Rating : ****1/2

Masterfully directed by Gavin Hood, 'Eye In The Sky' is a consistently gripping, intensely provocative and, at times, deeply moving war drama that effectively explores the ethics and the politics of modern warfare while significantly foregoing the pretensions and bias of many of it's thematic counterparts. Featuring an all star cast including Academy Award winner Helen Mirren, 'Breaking Bad's Aaron Paul and Alan Rickman (in one of his final screen roles) this positively ambivalent thriller sees the ongoing war on terror from a different standpoint - not from the point of view of the soldiers who face the enemy on foreign soil but of the men and women who make life or death decisions from the comfort and safety of their offices, their barracks and their air bases thousands of miles away from any danger. The end result is a terrifically engaging and beautifully choreographed movie that explores the most complicated of scenarios in the most perfectly manageable way.

When a group of highly dangerous Al-Shabbab mercenaries assemble in a small house in Nairobi, the stage is set for a routine drone strike. Led by Helen Mirren's no-nonsense Colonel Powell, the success of the operation could mean the elimination of some of the most wanted terrorists on the planet. But as the imminent cost of civilians lives begins to stack up and the legality of the attack begins to fall under scrutiny, the stage is set for a nail-biting exercise in tension and rhetoric as politicians, lawyers and military personnel alike from around the world fiercely debate whether or not to proceed with the potentially crippling strike while the likelihood of a suicide attack dramatically rises.

From its opening minutes, 'Eye In The Sky' takes a hold of our nerves and refuses to let them go even after its heart-wrenching coda has finally reached its end. Scripted by Guy Hibbert and hauntingly underscored by frequent Hood collaborators Mark Kilian and Paul Hepker, the movie is a well paced and expertly crafted chronicle of 21st century warfare that doesn't resort to the typical macho posturings of the modern war thriller but instead goes out of its way to tell a very human story about the consequences of combat and the extreme lengths some people will go to protect their respective ways of life.

As always, the fantastic Helen Mirren leads with a performance that is both forthright and dignified while the late Alan Rickman gives one of the best performances of his outstanding career as the increasingly frustrated Lt. General whose patience is continually tested by the propagandist bureaucrats who are more concerned about the lasting political effects of the attack rather than the immediate ethical ones. He may have known for playing the prototypical villain but 'Eye In The Sky' demonstrably proves that Alan Rickman was in fact an actor of great emotional range and the possessor of a powerful ability to emote anguish, grief and anger with the simplest of gestures and mildest of vocal inflection.

On the other side of the world, Aaron Paul injects great emotional heft to his portrayal of the conflicted drone pilot anxiously waiting behind the trigger waiting for the orders to unleash hellfire while BAFTA winner Barkhad Abdi's convincingly plays the brave undercover agent controlling state of the art military technology down on the ground, dangerously close to the targeted house in Kenya. As a collective ensemble, every actor gives their all and while some are given more screen time than others, Guy Hibberts continually enthralling script allows each character to become a fully developed entity with differentiating values, priorities and moral codes - meaning that the raging arguments and warring ideologies between them are just as intense as the situation they are ultimately trying to negotiate.

As complex as the issues it raises, 'Eye In The Sky' is about as pertinent as a movie can be right now. Over the past few years, drones have become increasingly used in war and while efficient, the lasting results have proved to be utterly horrific - with many innocent lives being lost in the vast explosions caused by the devastating strikes. But like the best films of this kind, 'Eye In The Sky' doesn't ask us to pick a side on this mostly hotly debated of topics but rather presents us with a scenario and allows us to make up our own minds. Rather than saying this is what you should think, it says what do you think of this and that just makes it an even more powerful and harrowing watch. It is a cutting, edge of your seat thriller that is sure to only become more cutting as this most violent of wars rages on and on.