✕ ✕
Turning tips into memories
Login
Signup

You have reached the limit of free articles.


To enjoy unlimited access to Culture Whisper sign up for FREE.
Find out more about Culture Whisper


Sign up by Email or Facebook.

Please fix the following input errors:

  • dummy

Each week, we sent newsletters and communication featuring articles, our latest tickets invitations, and exclusive offers.

Occasional information about discounts, special offers and promotions.


OR
LOG IN

OR
  • LOG IN WITH FACEBOOK

Thanks for signing up to Culture Whisper.
Please check your inbox for a confirmation email and click the link to verify your account.



EXPLORE CULTURE WHISPER
✕ ✕
Turning tips into memories
Login
Signup

Please fix the following input errors:

  • dummy
Forgot your username or password?
Don't have an account? Sign Up

OR
  • LOG IN WITH FACEBOOK

If you click «Log in with Facebook» and are not a Culture Whisper user, you agree to our Terms & Conditions and to our Privacy Policy, which includes our Cookie Use

Turning tips into memories

Get started Login
  • Home
  • Going Out
    • Things to do
    • Food & Drink
    • Theatre
    • Visual Arts
    • Cinema
    • Kids
    • Festival
    • Gigs
    • Dance
    • Classical Music
    • Opera
    • Immersive
    • Talks
  • Staying In
    • TV
    • Books
    • Cook
    • Podcast
    • Design
    • Netflix
  • Life & Style
    • Beauty
    • Fashion
    • Gifting
    • Wellbeing
    • Lifestyle
    • Shopping
    • Jewellery
  • Explore
  • Kids
  • Benefits
  • Membership
  • Get Started
  • Membership
  • Benefits
Get the Best of London Life, Culture and Style
By entering my email I agree to the CultureWhisper Privacy Policy (we won`t share data & you can unsubscribe anytime).
Cinema

Eye in the Sky film review ★★★★★

15 Apr 16 – 15 Jun 16, Event times vary

Alan Rickman's final film is a moral drama with serious questions to ask

By CW Contributor on 13/4/2016

Eye in the Sky film review [STAR:3]
Eye in the Sky film review [STAR:3]
Eye in the Sky film review 3 Eye in the Sky film review James Stanfield
Gavin Hood's Eye in the Sky could almost serve as a training film for the British or US armed forces. How to think for yourself and maybe do the right thing when your finger is on the trigger. Otherwise it might be a sort of 21st century wartime propaganda movie showing the care exercised by the joint forces in an operation to take out an enemy cell bent on destruction.


Or maybe it’s neither. Following the politicians and soldiers caught up in the decision to remotely attack a terrorist cell with the likely collateral damage of a young bread-seller, this is effectively an anti-war film. In this light, it is disarmingly powerful.



For the big screen, it plays out a little too much like a TV drama, but is redeemed by solid performances from heavyweights Alan Rickman (to whom it is dedicated) and the totally dependable if not a little Mirren-like Helen Mirren, as the military commander Col. Katherine Powell, one providing perfect downbeat humour and both offering the grave face of military realism.


The film has two overlapping acts, carefully interlacing machinations in the corridors of power and the developing absurdity of deferred decisions, without taking away from the real tension of the scenes in Kenya where Barkhad Abdi plays an undercover field operative.


The score, both lush and menacing, lifts it above the realms of TV as does the cinematography, especially during Aaron Paul’s harrowing trial as the remote pilot tasked with carrying out the attack. This is a thought-provoking piece with a bitingly relevant moral conundrum at its core.

by Paul Duncan

What Eye in the Sky film review
Where Various Locations | MAP
Nearest tube Leicester Square (underground)
When 15 Apr 16 – 15 Jun 16, Event times vary
Price £determined by cinema
Website



Most popular

Things to do this weekend. Picture: NYCB's Prodigal Son
Things to do in London this weekend: 26 - 28 February
James Nesbitt and Charlene McKenna in Bloodlands, BBC One (Photo: BBC)
Bloodlands, BBC One review
Andra Day in The United States vs Billie Holliday, Sky Cinema (Photo: Sky)
What to watch on TV this week

A little more...


  • 1. SHAKESPEARE ON FILM

    The BFI’s epic new blockbuster season

    2. FESTIVAL FEVER

    Up to the minute reviews from this year's Berlin Film Festival

    3. WHAT WE'LL BE WATCHING

    The most exciting films coming up this year

Sign up to CW’s newsletter
By entering my email I agree to the CultureWhisper Privacy Policy (we won`t share data & you can unsubscribe anytime).

Cinema

You might like

  • The Brand New Testament, Photograph: © Fabrizio Maltese

    The Brand New Testament film review ★★★★★

  • The Man Who Knew Infinity film review [STAR:3]

    The Man Who Knew Infinity film review ★★★★★

  • The Huntsman, Photograph: Feref

    The Huntsman: Winter's War film review ★★★★★



  • The Culture Whisper team
  • What is Culture Whisper membership
  • Corporate membership
  • Give a gift membership
  • Retrieve a gift membership
  • Contact us
  • Press
  • FAQ
  • Privacy
  • Terms and conditions
  • Cookies
  • Discover
  • Venues
  • Restaurants
  • Stations
  • Boroughs
Sign up to CW’s newsletter
By entering my email I agree to the CultureWhisper Privacy Policy (we won`t share data & you can unsubscribe anytime).
×