The movie begins in 2012 Homs where Marie Colvin (Rosamund Pike) faces her mortality. As the premier foreign war correspondent for London's The Sunday Times, she travels to Sri Lanka in 2001 to do a story on the besieged Tamil Tigers where she loses her left eye. In 2003 Iraq, she befriends freelance photographer Paul Conroy (Jamie Dornan) who would follow her in many of her reporting. She struggles with her personal life and is haunted by PTSD.
It's an admirable life and it's an admirable attempt at portraying that life by Pike. What it doesn't do is a couple of standard biopic tropes that could have helped to give her life context. It doesn't have her childhood. It doesn't have her family other than lovers and friends. It doesn't have the start of her career. It doesn't show how she got into war correspondence in the first place. Normally, a biopic would have early defining experiences which would drive that person to her journey and poetically her end. It's standard operating procedure and this movie is missing that. It does have a good sense of her PTSD. It's probably the best part of the movie. The devastation faced by the civilians is just as compelling. Her relationship with Paul could have been used as the central nexus. There is some unspoken reality between them that is left out. This biopic has its compelling moments but it's not going to be one of the greats.
It's an admirable life and it's an admirable attempt at portraying that life by Pike. What it doesn't do is a couple of standard biopic tropes that could have helped to give her life context. It doesn't have her childhood. It doesn't have her family other than lovers and friends. It doesn't have the start of her career. It doesn't show how she got into war correspondence in the first place. Normally, a biopic would have early defining experiences which would drive that person to her journey and poetically her end. It's standard operating procedure and this movie is missing that. It does have a good sense of her PTSD. It's probably the best part of the movie. The devastation faced by the civilians is just as compelling. Her relationship with Paul could have been used as the central nexus. There is some unspoken reality between them that is left out. This biopic has its compelling moments but it's not going to be one of the greats.