A Thousand Times Good Night (2014)

Into the Danger Zone: Juliette Binoche plays a wartime
photojournalist in "A Thousand Times Good Night."

Ever wonder how people whose job involves taking pictures in close proximity of the immediate aftermath of crime scenes and other deadly catastrophes are able to compartmentalize the horror of their work—the grim, everyday awareness of a thin line between life and death—and still lead normal lives?

It isn't easy. At least that's the case when it comes to Rebecca, the steely-nerved protagonist of "A Thousand Times Good Night," director Erik Poppe’s somber, ruminative and compelling drama about a talented, brave but reckless wartime photojournalist whose repeated brushes with death have left those closest to her feeling strangely alienated and emotionally disconnected. Her family has grown weary of constantly fearing for her safety.

As the film opens, Rebecca (Juliette Binoche, in another brilliantly expressive, multi-layered performance) is in Kabul, Afghanistan, tasked with following a collection of would-be suicide bombers. She silently surveys ghastly events in progress as a group of women prepare for a suicide mission—one of them being fitted with IEDs—snapping pictures with her camera with a mix of detachment and shock. Unlike combat, the movie captures a rare glimpse of a sometimes overlooked aspect of war; the combination of humanity and savagery is gruesome and haunting.

Determined to get more pictures, Rebecca drifts too close to the danger zone and is injured in a violent explosion. She recovers but returns home to find her family every bit as wounded emotionally as she had been physically. Her husband (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) and two daughters, teenaged Steph (Lauryn Canny) and younger sister Lisa (Adrianna Cramer Curtis), suffer with the knowledge that even though Rebecca lived this time, one day she will likely not be so lucky.

Rebecca vows to quit and devote herself to family, but the passion to continue working remains strong. In one of the best sequences, Rebecca takes an assignment photographing a refugee camp in Kenya; Steph, doing research for a school project, comes along. But when things suddenly get dangerous, Rebecca sends Steph to safety and stays behind in harm’s way to snap shots. A trip that begins as a bonding experience for mother and daughter—helping them to understand more about one another and perhaps heal some of the fissures in their relationship—ends with the sound of gunfire followed by isolation and fear.

Near the end, Rebecca struggles to explain to Steph the reasons why she is heading back to Kabul. “I have to finish what I’ve started,” she says. “When will it be finished?” Steph replies through tears. The devastating long pause that follows suggests it will never be finished—that as long as there are people, there will always be a war somewhere.