Well, let me start with that although the entire story of this film is already overused, it still managed to send a chill or two down my spine. It did so by incorporating drama and the human aspect, instead of showing raw data and all those hardcore abbreviations that intelligence agencies so dearly love and cherish.
The mentioned touching story, roughly said, revolves around the whole Iraq war era. That era, of course, includes Saddam, foreign assets, alleged Weapons of Mass Destruction, but the horrific manipulations inside the US government itself as well. It shows the well known greedy and profit-chasing side of the so-called war for peace, the strength of tyranny conducted by a few privileged people, the indifference and the gullibility of the entire fucking Hillbilly nation.
Combine that with a normal-ish family whose life has been turned upside down, just for speaking out in the name of democracy. Just for telling the truth which they have experienced first-hand. See the pain and the devastation they went through that was, if I might add, shown superbly by Naomi Watts and Sean Penn.
To conclude, this is one of those films that really gets your blood boiling. You just want to scream your lungs out from the aggravation that these fucks, so cleverly hidden behind the curtains, produce. There is no happy ending, either. You do ultimately get that warm and fuzzy feeling because of the family's unbreakable love and unity, but nothing actually ever changes. It's a war that cannot be won.
8 out of 10.
