A woman ( ) walks into a plaza sparsely occupied by patrons enjoying an afternoon coffee and a magazine and lottery ticket kiosk. She approaches the booth and fingers a stack of newspapers before asking the attendant (Demián Bichir), an older man with rounded shoulders and reading glasses perched on his nose, a question. Her delivery is studied, as if a more natural cadence battles against an inherent severity.
She begs the man to close up the shop and have a drink with her. Her mannered sweetness becomes more urgent with his refusal. This is a command, not a request.
Premiering at the , is ’s latest foray into directing. The actress, who is with her performance in , adapted this thinly plotted parable from the novella of the same name by the Italian writer Alessandro Baricco. obliquely investigates the psychological and generational toll of war.
Jolie treads familiar ground here: A handful of her previous directorial efforts, including , and , set their action against the distressing backdrop of war. Whereas these other films grounded themselves with the details of real conflicts like the Bosnian War or the Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia, claims no land or era. This lack of specificity may have worked in the hands of a more risk-taking helmer, but Jolie’s approach to direction can be as stiff as the woman’s initial encounter with the kiosk attendant.
Despite bursts of intelligence, especially when it comes to conveying the fractured quality of trauma narratives, ’s.