Hart’s War

Directed by Gregory Hoblit, Hart’s War follows Colin Farrell’s Thomas Hart as he agrees to defend a soldier (Terrence Howard’s Lincoln Scott) accused of murder within a German POW camp. Filmmaker Hoblit, armed with a script by Billy Ray and Terry George, offers up a slow-moving yet mostly watchable endeavor that benefits from its smattering of engrossing sequences and raft of above-average performances, as, in terms of the latter, Hoblit elicits superb work from an eclectic cast that includes Bruce Willis, Cole Hauser, and Linus Roache – with Marcel Iureş’ memorable turn as a personable Nazi certainly standing as a recurring highlight within the proceedings. It’s clear, then, that Hart’s War‘s pervasively subdued atmosphere generally prevents it from becoming the searing drama Hoblit has surely intended, and while the movie’s midsection admittedly contains a handful of stirring digressions (eg Howard’s character delivers an emotional speech on the stand), the narrative builds towards a padded-out third act that ensures the whole thing fizzles out to a fairly demonstrable (and disappointing) degree – with the end result a piece of work that could’ve benefited from some serious post-production streamlining.

**1/2 out of ****