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THE SITUTATION
Directed by: Philip Haas.
Produced by: Liaquet Ahamed, Michael Sternberg & Neda Armian.
Written by: Wendell Steavenson.
Director of Photography: Sean Bobbit.
Edited by: Curtiss Clayton.
Music by: Jeff Beal.
Released by: Shadow Distribution.
Language: English & Arabic with English subtitles.
Country of Origin: USA. 106 min. Not Rated.
With: Connie Nielsen, Damian Lewis & Mido Hamada.

What was once an incendiary subject may cool off by the time a film is initiated and then finally arrives in theatres. Much of what The Situation (the film’s euphemism for the US occupation) conveys is now familiar. However, to the film’s credit the picture of Iraq is complicated, with no clear-cut choices or answers for the country, the U.S, or for the characters, American or Iraqi. (And the characters do come in third, overpowered by their environment.) An American intelligence officer, Dan Murphy (Damian Lewis), sums up the theme, saying, “There are no bad guys and there are no good guys. It’s not gray either. It’s just that the truth shifts according to each person you talk to.”

What comes through strongly in this Rashomon by the Tigris is director Philip Haas’ depiction of the violent chaos. (At the outbreak of the war, debut screenwriter Wendell Steavenson was a journalist based in Baghdad.) However, the film’s desired reaction has been widely accomplished already if last fall’s Democratic electoral victories are any indication. The film has immediacy through its story lines of killings, kidnapping, and bombs exploding. Yet the power of the documentaries Fahrenheit 9/11 and Why We Fight lie in their staunch indignation and Cassandra-like warnings of disaster. Now four years after the start of the war, The Situation belatedly confirms these predictions.

After the expositional first hour, American journalist Anna (Connie Nielsen) returns to war-torn Samarra to discover whether her connection to a trusted and politically neutral source, Rafeeq (Nasser Memarzia), was the cause of his brutal murder. Back in Baghdad, she occasionally sleeps with Dan, who is still hopeful that the country’s hearts and minds can be won over with reconstruction projects. (Though you would think after former New York Times reporter Judith Miller was singed, accused of being a mouthpiece for the Bush Administration, a savvy journalist would be wary in getting in bed, so to speak, with a governmental source.) Accompanying Anna to Samarra, along with her young translator, is a good-looking and gentle Iraqi photojournalist Zaid (Mido Hamada), who acts more as her protector than a colleague, even waiting in his car for her while she’s on a date with Dan.

But in a country where there’s no real police, one Iraqi tells an American, “It’s just Iraq, don’t let it get to you,” an echo of Chinatown’s “Forget it, Jake. It's Chinatown.” So you have more than an idea of where the film’s going with its budding romantic triangle. Yet Nielsen lacks a sense of urgency, making a climatic kidnapping uneventful in comparison to the violent incident that kicks off the film. Ever the reporter, Anna is the observer, her reactions not deeply felt. The Situation never fails to be illustrative, like in straight reporting, but at the expense of catharsis. Kent Turner
February 2, 2007