By Brian Viner
Published: 14:48 EST, 1 May 2014 | Updated: 15:50 EST, 1 May 2014
A Thousand Times Good Night (15)
Verdict: Worthy, well-acted drama ★★★✩✩
This sometimes over-intense drama begins grippingly, as a war photographer, Rebecca (Juliette Binoche), covers the deadly mission of a female suicide bomber in Kabul. She bales out moments before the explosion, but too late to avoid injury herself.
Much of the rest of Erik Poppe's film follows her rehabilitation at home on the Irish coast, where her charming marine biologist husband (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) and older daughter Stephanie (Lauryn Canny) struggle to come to terms with her commitment to her dangerous career.
Drama: A Thousand Times Good Night with Lauryn Canny as Steph and Juliette Binoche as Rebecca
Younger daughter Lisa (Adrianna Cramer Curtis) just wants a kitten.
Poppe, a former war photographer himself, addresses significant issues here, not least the morality of war-zone journalism.
She could have stopped the suicide bomber; should she have done so? Indeed, were she and her camera to blame for the bomb exploding when it did?
Also implied is the question of whether her responsibilities as a wife and mother should weigh any more heavily, as she puts her life on the line, than those of the husbands and fathers similarly addicted to telling the truth about war.
The film is at its considerable best when Rebecca is working, less sure with its depiction of fragile domestic harmony.
But Binoche is marvellous throughout, and gets strong support - even if kitten-loving Lisa, in straining to be cute, is merely irritating.
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