After watching this movie, all that I can say is that Angelina should not try to direct again. The movie is bad on so many levels, but it's the directing that clearly failed the most.
First, the few positives about the movie. Casting is solid, actors do a decent job even with the awful script they had, but they clearly struggle to act in English. Camera work is solid, every now and then we see an interesting shot.
Now, the negatives that are too many to number. The script is god damn awful, many times it makes no sense at all. It's trying to portray complexities of the main characters, but does it in a horribly cheesy and uninspiring way. Making this kind of war drama that braids the story of few characters with the broader context of war is very hard, but when done successfully, it has resulted in some of the world's most memorable movies. This is not one of them. It starts with a good idea, but then it fails in so many ways. First, it is horribly historically inaccurate and I don't mean just in the way that Serbs are wearing Hungarian throwback uniforms (because Bosnian authorities angered with insulting script have kicked the Angelina's crew out of Bosnia and the movie had to be shot in Hungary) or the wrong color of Yugoslavian passports, or the wrong weaponry which is used the wrong way, or the wrong number of reported war victims mentioned in the movie, etc. Movie manages to go into whole new, almost metaphysical level of historical inaccuracy. For instance, every Serb that we see in the movie (that we know is a Serb) wears a uniform. There is not a single Serb civilian in the whole movie. Even at the start, when two main characters go on a date, the Serb is wearing his police uniform. My god Angelina, do you know that policeman are not allowed to wear uniforms off duty? And what cop would want to go on a date wearing his beat uniform? Somewhere around the half movie finally manages to pick up a little and establish some sort of narrative flow, which is why I won't give it 1/10. But even that little good about it gets ruined by the end. Since this was supposed to be a spin on the old Romeo and Juliette tale, it made a lot of sense to finish the story in the similar way, but no, Angelina opted for the least logical ending possible.
First, the few positives about the movie. Casting is solid, actors do a decent job even with the awful script they had, but they clearly struggle to act in English. Camera work is solid, every now and then we see an interesting shot.
Now, the negatives that are too many to number. The script is god damn awful, many times it makes no sense at all. It's trying to portray complexities of the main characters, but does it in a horribly cheesy and uninspiring way. Making this kind of war drama that braids the story of few characters with the broader context of war is very hard, but when done successfully, it has resulted in some of the world's most memorable movies. This is not one of them. It starts with a good idea, but then it fails in so many ways. First, it is horribly historically inaccurate and I don't mean just in the way that Serbs are wearing Hungarian throwback uniforms (because Bosnian authorities angered with insulting script have kicked the Angelina's crew out of Bosnia and the movie had to be shot in Hungary) or the wrong color of Yugoslavian passports, or the wrong weaponry which is used the wrong way, or the wrong number of reported war victims mentioned in the movie, etc. Movie manages to go into whole new, almost metaphysical level of historical inaccuracy. For instance, every Serb that we see in the movie (that we know is a Serb) wears a uniform. There is not a single Serb civilian in the whole movie. Even at the start, when two main characters go on a date, the Serb is wearing his police uniform. My god Angelina, do you know that policeman are not allowed to wear uniforms off duty? And what cop would want to go on a date wearing his beat uniform? Somewhere around the half movie finally manages to pick up a little and establish some sort of narrative flow, which is why I won't give it 1/10. But even that little good about it gets ruined by the end. Since this was supposed to be a spin on the old Romeo and Juliette tale, it made a lot of sense to finish the story in the similar way, but no, Angelina opted for the least logical ending possible.