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Situation, The

EMAILPRINTShadow Distribution Inc.

Situation, The reviews
45
4.0 User Score:

Mixed or average reviews

Based on 20 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

Based on 2 votes
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Movie Info

Genre(s): Drama

Written by: Wendell Steavenson

Directed by: Philip Haas

Release Date:
Theatrical: February 2, 2007

Running Time: 106 minutes, Color

Origin: USA

Summary

RATING: Not Rated

Starring Connie Nielsen, Damian Lewis, Mido Hamada, John Slattery, Thomas McCarthy, Peter Eyre, Omar Berdouni, and Nasser Memarzia

Combining elements of thriller, romance, and war movie, The Situation, set exclusively in Iraq, dramatizes one of the countless human stories that lie behind the headlines of the current war. (Shadow Distribution)

What The Critics Said

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

75

New York Daily News Jack Mathews

Shot in Morocco with hand-held cameras, the movie has the urgency of a heart attack. Clearly tilted against the war, and heavy on explanatory dialogue, it paints a bleak picture of a desperate country that is being exploited by extremists at the expense of the despairing citizens. The situation is dire.

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75

TV Guide Ken Fox

While not easy to watch, and at times even harder to follow, Haas' film is an important attempt to accurately capture the confusing reality of contemporary Iraq.

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75

San Francisco Chronicle Ruthe Stein

Compelling and deeply disturbing.

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75

Miami Herald Marta Barber

The Situation is written by Wendell Steavenson, a reporter who served in Iraq, as a work of fiction. Its best quality is that the situation in Iraq appears to be sadly realistic.

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70

Village Voice J. Hoberman

The Situation, Philip Haas's deftly paced, well-written, and brilliantly infuriating Iraq War thriller is not only the strongest of recent geopolitical hotspot flicks but one that has been designed for maximal agitation.

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63

Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea

The Situation deserves credit for not trying to reduce the events in Iraq to facile equations. There is corruption and cynicism on all sides: the U.S. diplomats and military, the Sunni leaders, the thugs in cop uniforms, the local powerbrokers.

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58

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

An overstuffed, unengaging drama that makes time for a love triangle.

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50

Salon.com Andrew O'Hehir

An uneven but impressively ambitious picture.

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50

Boston Globe Sandy MacDonald

Overall the concept is strong and expertly fleshed out; it's just a pity that Hollywood tropes are allowed to invade.

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50

Variety Ronnie Scheib

Undeniably topical but the lack of emotional investment in its characters renders it more intelligent than engaging.

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50

New York Post Kyle Smith

Dividing its loyalties between documentary and fictional narrative, it lacks the advantages of belonging to either side.

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50

LA Weekly Ella Taylor

As ambitious in scope as it is interpretively timid, The Situation delivers the requisite incendiary climax, but collapses in on itself with daft speeches about the elusiveness of truth in something called "the fourth dimension of time."

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40

Washington Post Desson Thomson

Though Philip Haas's digitally shot film has the firsthand immediacy of such nonfictional docs as "Iraq in Fragments" and "Gunner Palace," its dramatic template feels disappointingly secondhand.

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40

Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

The romance makes an awkward, contrived fit with the nominally serious political stuff, and even those momentous events come off as generic and unconvincing.

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40

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

The situation in The Situation is grimly photogenic, yet persistently opaque.

40

New York Magazine David Edelstein

The Situation is, to put it kindly, a spotty piece of work. The script is by Wendell Steavenson, a reporter who seems to know everything about Iraq and next to nothing about screenwriting. The dialogue is flat, and the actors almost never rise above it.

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40

The New Yorker Anthony Lane

This awkward and half-digested movie gives off a melancholy reek.

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40

The Hollywood Reporter Michael Rechtshaffen

Part war drama, part political thriller, part romance -- and wholly uninvolving.

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33

The Onion (A.V. Club) Noel Murray

It's a rare moment when the STORY makes the point, not the speeches.

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20

The New York Times Manohla Dargis

Exploitation cinema of the most narcoleptic kind.

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What Our Users Said

The average user rating for this movie is 4.0 (out of 10) based on 2 User Votes

Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

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