A grim account of a war reporter

because she literally can’t see him from that angle.

Rather than resting on her laurels and taking a desk job, Colvin insists on returning to the most dangerous assignments imaginable, even though she’s haunted by nightmares and is becoming increasingly volatile and reckless, especially when she’s drunk.

Tom Hollander has the most thankless role in the film as Marie’s editor, who fusses about and throws little tantrums when she defies him, but doesn’t take her out of the game even after she’s clearly damaged, inside and out. The charmingly scene- grabbing Stanley Tucci wanders in out of nowhere as a wealthy businessman who falls for Marie. ( He’s a composite character who might as well be wearing a nametag saying, “I’m a composite character.”)

The most surprising — positively surprising — performance in the film comes from Jamie Dornan as Paul Conroy, the Royal Artillery soldier turned freelance photographer who becomes Marie’s longtime partner in journalistic madness/ bravery and her fiercely loyal friend.

Dornan was about as mesmerising as a window display mannequin in the Fifty Shades movies, but he’s absolutely terrific here, delivering a lovely and warm performance as arguably the most sympathetic and relatable character in the entire film. He essentially serves as the stand- in for all of us, who admire the hell out of Marie Colvin and are eternally grateful for the work she did — especially when she put a name and a face on certain atrocities and thus made it impossible for the world to ignore them — but also lament that Marie couldn’t, or wouldn’t, find a way to come home and stay home, and let others take up the front- line charge.

By arrangement with Asia Features