Mark Walsh (Colin Farrell) and his buddy David (Jamie Sives) are war correspondents. They have traveled the world as free-lance photographers trying to capture that award winning photo (and put some food on the table). The two are so close that David's wife Diane (Kelly Reilly) has agreed to name their son after Mark.
When Mark returns from Kurdistan without his partner David, his girlfriend Elena (Paz Vega) realizes something is amiss. David becomes withdrawn and seems to suffer excessively from injuries he supposedly sustained after falling into a river. Elena enlists the aid of her grandfather, Joaquin (Christopher Lee) to help Mark come to terms with tragic events he is repressing.
Danis Tanovic based his screenplay on a novel by Scott Anderson. The story takes place in 1988 when the Kurds were being harassed and attacked by the Iraqi government. Half the story takes place in Kurdistan, but very little attention is given to the conflict itself. It almost seems like an afterthought. While the inner conflict that Mark contends with is the primary focus of the story, it seems as if good opportunities to develop the source of his conflict were squandered. The backdrop is a one-dimensional set that makes the entire story feel flat.
Tanovic utilizes flashbacks to set up the story and does a decent job with a couple of the characters, but the flashbacks feel contrived and overdone. While it suggests that there is an aspect to the story that we are waiting to discover, the set-up ends up being overblown, leading to a rather forgettable climax. I enjoyed the concept, the setting and the characters, but the story simply lacked heart.
The cinematography was another aspect that I didn't fully appreciate. While the scenery and costumes were excellent, some of the imagery was weak. The repetition of the water element felt overdone and I was confused by the use of color. The film sets up a scenario where blue means death and yellow means life. It is a simple concept. So when I saw one character wearing blue, I immediately assumed the other character was dead...or that it was a portent of impending death. In the next scene, she is wearing a yellow sweater. It felt like I was getting mixed signals from a subtle but important seam in the fabric of this film. In other words, the cinematography was visually strong but sloppy in terms of continuity and creating mood.
I like Colin Farrell, even though he has been in as many bad movies as good. He was strong in this film and was a definite bright spot. Christopher Lee was brilliant. I was uncertain about Paz Vega, but that was a character issue more than anything. The casting featured some veterans who did justice to a script that was a mixed bag. I don't think that better casting would have helped this film much.
The MPAA gave Triage an R rating, primarily for war violence. There were some decent special effects depicting war injuries that had a high gore factor. There was also a summary execution of wounded combatants that was disturbing. IMDB indicates that there was nudity and sexuality, but I do not recall anything explicit. There was a bathtub scene that may have shown male nudity, but I blinked, so I am not sure on that one. But if you want to see Farrell naked, keep your eyes peeled. Because the primary focus is war violence, I tend to buck the MPAA, but I would still keep this film around thirteen and older.
Triage was a decent film, with an interesting concept. However, the cinematography felt contrived and confused. Most of the characters were developed nicely, but the background felt one-dimensional, making the story feel flat. The cast helped make up for some flaws, but were unable to make this film stand out from the crowd. This is a rainy day film that is sluggish enough that it might lose your interest before you arrive at the credits. 6/10.
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