A Thousand Times Good Night (2014)

not as good as all the hype

Intense, gripping, stylish and poignant

Fantastic!

There's a more than satisfactory amount of boom-boom in the movie's trim running time.

The film expressed the conflict between family and making a difference in the world as a great existential matter. The film leaves me with the need for us all to act to stop the wars that are caused by motives involving domination, profit, religious or ethnic fundamentalism. We all have a hand in shaping or neglecting to shape the world we live in and Juliette Binoche portrays this need so passionately that one must feel deeply.Ron Ridenour, author

Erik Poppe's !,000 Times Good Night is a very good film in the storytelling tradition of Cinematic Art. And what a story it tells, the story of a intrepid war zone photo-journalist, whose dangerous assignments begin to cause severe discord in her marriage, and then with her older daughter Steph. But below the surface level of this effective dramatic production, lies submerged a tragic tale indeed.That is because for me, this film is about a person with latent suicidal tendencies, a person with a "death wish". Because she can't admit this death wish to herself, much less to those around her, it is an unconscious death wish that she obscures, and indirectly satisfies by choosing a professional that places her in a position of getting killed, of allowing her to commit "suicide by employment", if you will. All her pronouncements about her "professional dedication", and her "commitment to expose the horrors of war to the world" are just further attempts to obscure her death wish not only from herself, but from the people around her. Plus, if she does get killed in the course of being a war zone photo-journalist, her legacy for her family will be of her memory draped in the glorious flag of the intrepid photo-journalist, rather than leaving her family stigmatized if she were to commit suicide by more traditional means. Yet, her latent wish to commit "suicide by employment" keeps getting frustrated because, alas, she keeps coming home alive and well, which only frustrates her latent death wish even more, causing her to return to war zones again and again, thereby converting an obsessive wish to die into a "passion for her work". However, her husband, although he's no more consciously aware of his wife's death than she is, starts to "sense" it on an intuitive, "gut" level. He's "catching her vibes". So his outward rejection of his wife's chosen profession is really, on a subtle, emotional, and intuitive level, his rejection of a woman with an insatiable desire to die, his rejection of the "stink of death" that exudes from within her. The older daughter, Steph also begins to intuitively recognize her mother's latent death wish at the Kenyan refugee camp when, although the job her mother was sent to do was essentially accomplished, her mother essentially abandoned her by unadvisedly running back to a shootout by the rebels, by her mother's obsession with placing herself in a position to get killed. The film ends with this person's latent death wish still unresolved, and still submerged in her unconsciousness, although, by this time, her obsessive, latent desire to kill herself has led her to lose her family.

Frankly, I never knew what the movie is about. What I expected was a beautiful romantic drama and I got a movie that defined someone's struggle over her passion and its reality. After seeing opening scene I thought it would be another movie about war similar to the '5 Days of War'. I am glad it was so distinct which was partially based on the director own experiential story when he served as a photojournalist in the '80s. It is a jointly produced movie by Ireland and Norway in English language.Rebecca is a passionate war zone photojournalist and her daring attitude make her one of the finest on the field. Like always her latest journey takes place in the war torn city of Kabul, Afghanistan. She follows a suicide bomber to cover up the story where she gets injured. After the accident the whole story flips back to her home in Ireland where it chronicles the worried husband and the two children who are very affectionate of her. This is the time where she has to choose the side, the professional? Or the family? The stay at home during recovery makes her realize the worth of her life. So the movie's end strikes with the path she opts to travel forth.''Sometimes it's hard to stay at home. I mean, the one who stays at home has the hardest job.''Well, it served a message with the touch of melodrama. The story demonstrated family value on the right amount of each others love and care. The opening and the end scenes that take place in Afghanistan was so brutal and there's another one that takes place in Kenya. But bringing the reality on the screen as it happening some places of the world must be appreciated. It kind of makes you realize that someone is sacrificing their life to bring light on what's happening in the war zones. Like always, Juliette Binoche was good. It was her movie, her side of the story told when she was caught between the family who loves and the war that calls her.One of the fascinating thematic movie. Regarding the main role, you may think why she's not stopping the tragedy from happening. That's the journalism, when you have no power to act, just expose to the rest of the world. The combination of family drama and the conflict zone are like two different genres that brought together awesomely. The director's own experience helped to shape the movie well. Almost all the combat related scenes were so realistic as what he had seen is now letting us know through this film. I think this movie is a must see. The end scene makes us go speechless, woefully.

War correspondents, what does their work lead to? Is it just conflict porn to the morning coffee or can what they do make us react? And act?Juliette Binoche follows a suicide bomber in Kabul, from preparations to explosion. But is she somewhat responsible for what happens? She starts to think so. And she also has a family. Has she some responsibility for what's happening to them?That's the weak part of this film. Not that the script is bad, but the family conflict is a little too expected, from its up to its down. The most important question remains. What international media means to the world.