Strong concept, dialogue bring 'Situation' closer to home

In Philip Haas's fiction feature, the situation in question begins when American troops rough up two Iraqi teens and toss them off a bridge. The official report concludes that they jumped of their own volition. An American journalist, Anna Molyneux (model-chic Connie Nielsen, whose blond locks tend to escape her obligatory headscarf) tracks down the one survivor. Her determination to muckrake ultimately leads to a full-blown battle at an insurgents' encampment.

Haas's pace is headlong, and the chain of relationships proves Byzantine: Anna's young interpreter, for instance, is the son of an out-of-favor diplomat trying to wangle an overseas post through her sometime paramour, intelligence officer Dan Murphy (Damian Lewis, who has a gift for looking at once earnest and crafty). Murphy is forced to shoulder one of those speeches that cries out "core statement": "There are no bad guys and there are no good guys . . . . The truth shifts according to each person you talk to."

Screenwriter Wendell Steavenson based much of the material on her own experiences in the field, and there's a credibility to the dialogue that can't be faked. Overall the concept is strong and expertly fleshed out; it's just a pity that Hollywood tropes are allowed to invade. The minute we meet news photographer Zaid (Mido Hamada) we know, from his handsome head of curls and flawless smile, that his alliance with Anna will likely extend beyond the professional.

Neilson's Anna is pretty much hammerlocked into a stance of shell shock. To witness real grief, you'll have to look to the mothers and wives -- like her friend Samira (Fatiha Watila ) -- whose loved ones get ripped away by the constantly shifting tide of power.

Sandy MacDonald can be reached by e-mail at sandy@sandymacdonald.com.