Lately, Colin Farrell has been a welcome presence in such small-scale, unHollywood films as In Bruges and Ondine. In Triage, he plays a photojournalist who throws caution aside, hurling himself into battle for a good picture as if forgetting that what he sees in the lens isn’t just a picture, but reality. And reality can hurt.
Directed by Oscar winner Danis Tanovic (No Man’s Land) from the novel by war correspondent Scott Anderson, Triage (out on DVD and Blu-ray) thrusts Farrell’s photographer into the northern Iraq of 1988, where Kurds are fighting Saddam’s regime. He returns home to Ireland badly bruised from a near death experience, but the worst wounds are invisible to the eye. More than simply a story of post-traumatic stress, Triage is a meditation on life, death and moral complexity. It’s the sort of conversation, acting-driven film Hollywood no longer seems willing to produce.
