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Situation, The
EMAILPRINTShadow Distribution Inc.

Mixed or average reviews
Based on 20 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 2 votes
Read user comments
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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)
Also On Metacritic
FILM: Up at the Villa
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database View The Trailer Official Studio Site Official Distributor Site
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...
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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum
An overstuffed, unengaging drama that makes time for a love triangle.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >Variety Ronnie Scheib
Undeniably topical but the lack of emotional investment in its characters renders it more intelligent than engaging.
Read Full Review >New York Post Kyle Smith
Dividing its loyalties between documentary and fictional narrative, it lacks the advantages of belonging to either side.
Read Full Review >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."
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern
The situation in The Situation is grimly photogenic, yet persistently opaque.
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.
Read Full Review >The New Yorker Anthony Lane
This awkward and half-digested movie gives off a melancholy reek.
Read Full Review >The Hollywood Reporter Michael Rechtshaffen
Part war drama, part political thriller, part romance -- and wholly uninvolving.
Read Full Review >The Onion (A.V. Club) Noel Murray
It's a rare moment when the STORY makes the point, not the speeches.
Read Full Review >The New York Times Manohla Dargis
Exploitation cinema of the most narcoleptic kind.
Read Full Review >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.
