The only really positive thing I can say about Erik Poppe's English language debut, is that the photography is quite beautiful. The script and acting however, is at a level where even the most intense and action filled scenes are completely unengaging and boring.
What really ruins the experience though, is the way the movie continuously cranks the melodrama to 11, and constantly demand an emotional watershed. It's like every scene is screaming: LOOK AT THIS PERFECT FAMILY AND THEIR CUTE KITTEN, DOESN'T IT MAKE YOU CRY OF HAPPINESS!!! LOOK AT THIS POOR WAR TORN COUNTRY, DOESN'T IT JUST TEAR YOU UP INSIDE!!! Instead of provoking a sympathetic response, it is so over the top that it's reminiscent of bad poetry from an angst ridden teenager.
The blame can only lie with an overambitious director. All the locations in different countries and multiple plot lines, end up getting lost in their own entanglement, and makes it a pale comparison to his brilliant Norwegian classic, Hawaii Oslo.
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