Journalism is a topic to which cinema keeps returning. From All the President’s Men to Spotlight, filmmakers have long been fascinated with the dogged pursuit of truth that the profession is supposed to embody. Perhaps that is because cinema is also supposed to seek truth within its subjects. A Private War certainly tries, aided by the dynamism of its subject, war correspondent Marie Colvin. Colvin covered conflicts all over the world from Chechnya to Kosovo, Sri Lanka (where she lost vision in one eye) to Libya and, finally, Syria. It is there where she was killed after evacuating a building under fire from the Syrian Army.

This brief summary of her extraordinary life demonstrates the film’s greatest strength and greatest weakness. Colvin’s life was fascinating and is portrayed well here by Rosamund Pike. Pike has struggled to find a role worthy of her talents after her breakout performance in Gone Girl, and this is the closest she has come to matching that work since. Cutting a stark figure on screen with an eyepatch adorning her lined face, she effectively conveys the urgency Colvin felt when reporting. ‘I see it so you don’t have to,’ she tells her editor, scarred by her experiences but determined to keep showing the world the suffering families and maimed bodies all the same. The trouble is that the film aims to portray such a vast swathe of her life that it is never able to completely show much below the surface. It is most successful when depicting her work in Syria towards the end, but this is after hitting similar beats earlier on. A more refined focus would have helped its tragic ending hit home even harder.

The third act mostly works however, in spite of what comes before it. There is a sense of voyeurism in following Colvin and her photographer Paul Conroy (a mostly underused Jamie Dornan) through a hospital in Homs, themselves voyeurs too. Conroy’s camera lingers over the injured and dead – is it right that he is documenting such personal suffering? This is a moral complication barely touched upon by the film but one that remains the most striking. The plight of one family in particular leaves even Colvin fighting off tears: she turns to Conroy, silent but with an expression that renders words redundant. A Private War is not for the faint of heart, but in these final scenes, at least, Pike is able to do justice to its subject matter.

Back in England, the story is more of a mixed bag. Tom Hollander is perennially watchable, and his role as editor Sean Ryan provides entertaining sparring sessions which bring out Colvin’s stubborn side. He draws blood from her where others cannot, proving to be her most compelling foil. Stanley Tucci’s brief appearances are amusing but feel like they belong in a different film; Faye Marsay is wasted entirely as an aspiring reporter who falls by the wayside in the second half. Elsewhere, it is surreal seeing Colvin interview Muammar Gaddafi, in a scene which is essential to her story but does not quite sit right within the wider film. Dramatising such a figure was never going to be easy however and is one of the film’s more forgivable flaws.

As she is told repeatedly, you would have to be mad to do what Colvin did. There are countless scenes of her escaping to cover from a hail of bullets, or running as a bomb explodes mid-interview. Her relentless pursuit of the truth is as courageous as it is reckless. A Private War is determined to demonstrate the bravery of this ethos, but it is ultimately limited because of how it presents Colvin as a vessel for other people’s stories more than her own. Rightfully, we see her document the experiences of the many victims of these wars, often heartbreakingly, but this is an approach which can only carry you so far in a biopic which should not hesitate in scrutinising its subject. Director Matthew Heineman is an extremely talented documentarian, having previously covered Mexican drug cartels and the rise of ISIS in Syria, but this background shows itself too often. Colvin’s story is a natural pathway into narrative filmmaking, but Heineman’s instincts must shift if he wishes to do the same justice to similar figures in the future.

Verdict:

Rosamund Pike is superb as Marie Colvin, a woman whose life could justify half a dozen biopics. The film around her however does not quite give her story the dramatic heft it deserves, even if it succeeds in celebrating the tenacity of those unerringly committed to the truth.

Score:

7/10