It's Summer 2021 and the whole world knows about what's happening in Afghanistan. 20 years of progress (or lack thereof) depending on which eye you shut behind the red or blue lense of your 3D glasses.
And 3D glasses are essentially what we have at this time. But we don't toss them into the recycle after our matinee feature. We toss them into our pocket when we realize we need two hands to perform a task-- say driving a car...
Major Thomas Egan (played by Hawke) is a skilled drone strike operator. He is accompanied by others who verbalize their opinions on the morality of the situation. Some are red and some are blue. However, Egan reserves judgment-- at least on the surface. He is inward and withdrawn but there's no question that this job affects him deeply. But that's where the film loses focus. We learn that whether or not Egan agrees with the cost/benefits of pondering the morality of the drone strike campaign that he is at least feeling detached with the mechanics of the situation. He wants to fly a REAL plane and fulfill his duties on the ground. This is where the film could have reached another level. Unfortunately, it is distracted by awkward dialogue between him and his wife Molly (played by January Jones). Hawke is a fantastic actor and did what he could with the material. Jones falls short slightly. And for where the film goes we really need both of them in tip-top performance to feel invested. I end up not caring about his family situation as it feels hollow and shoe-horned.
Andrew Niccol, who wrote Gattaca (1997), The Truman Show (1998), The Terminal (2004), clearly did well writing characters who find themselves in increasingly uncomfortable situations yet find the courage to improvise in an attempt to leave those situations. They work because the rules of the worlds are up to him. However, in Good Kill, our protagonist is in a real-world situation. While the rules of foreign policy aren't as clear to us as we'd like them we still have an intuition that navigating them carefully is extremely important.
Because of the wooden family and lack of focus it doesn't feel like Egan has anything to risk. Therefore the conclusion drawn falls flat.
And 3D glasses are essentially what we have at this time. But we don't toss them into the recycle after our matinee feature. We toss them into our pocket when we realize we need two hands to perform a task-- say driving a car...
Major Thomas Egan (played by Hawke) is a skilled drone strike operator. He is accompanied by others who verbalize their opinions on the morality of the situation. Some are red and some are blue. However, Egan reserves judgment-- at least on the surface. He is inward and withdrawn but there's no question that this job affects him deeply. But that's where the film loses focus. We learn that whether or not Egan agrees with the cost/benefits of pondering the morality of the drone strike campaign that he is at least feeling detached with the mechanics of the situation. He wants to fly a REAL plane and fulfill his duties on the ground. This is where the film could have reached another level. Unfortunately, it is distracted by awkward dialogue between him and his wife Molly (played by January Jones). Hawke is a fantastic actor and did what he could with the material. Jones falls short slightly. And for where the film goes we really need both of them in tip-top performance to feel invested. I end up not caring about his family situation as it feels hollow and shoe-horned.
Andrew Niccol, who wrote Gattaca (1997), The Truman Show (1998), The Terminal (2004), clearly did well writing characters who find themselves in increasingly uncomfortable situations yet find the courage to improvise in an attempt to leave those situations. They work because the rules of the worlds are up to him. However, in Good Kill, our protagonist is in a real-world situation. While the rules of foreign policy aren't as clear to us as we'd like them we still have an intuition that navigating them carefully is extremely important.
Because of the wooden family and lack of focus it doesn't feel like Egan has anything to risk. Therefore the conclusion drawn falls flat.