Film Review: A Private War

Rosamund Pike rarely gets enough credit for her interesting roles. Even beyond her most well-known performance in Gone Girl, she is always willing to de-glamour and portray difficult, prickly characters. Here she takes on the challenge of playing a real person known for her ferocious and complex psyche: renowned Sunday Times war correspondent Marie Colvin.

Spanning a decade of her career, Matthew Heineman's film portrays how Colvin lost her eye after being fired at by military in Sri Lanka; risked her life in Marjah in Afghanistan; witnessed the exhumation of a mass grave in Iraq; reported the horrors facing civilians in Libya; and was killed in 2012 while highlighting atrocities in Syria.

An occasionally affected gruff voice aside, Pike's performance is raw and compelling. Working from Arash Amel's screenplay, her portrayal of Colvin is layered and emotionally complex. Colvin was brusque, argumentative and addicted to the adrenaline of war-zones, finding normal life in London superficial. But Pike captures her vulnerability, too. Though ravaged by PTSD (powerfully evoked through disorienting edits) and a resulting drinking problem, she still makes romantic connections, as well as forging a lovingly respectful bond with her photographer, Paul Conroy (Jamie Dornan).

In the hours before she died, Colvin gave a live report to CNN, her desire to highlight the danger facing innocent people lasting to the bitter end. But Heineman highlights the danger she endured, too, and the result is both a powerful psychological portrait and a fitting tribute.