For Reel

Director: Gavin Hood

This unique take on the ethical dilemma that is drone warfare gleefully flaunts its contrivances—it is the sort of suspense tale that feels so manufactured that, at times, it is comical. When an innocent young girl (Aisha Takow) reenters the line of fire in order to sell her bread, the film begins a second heaping of melodrama, complete with the bleary eyes of the man tasked with firing the warhead (Aaron Paul). But Eye in the Sky never once mistakes itself for a gritty, realistic thriller—the screenplay by Guy Hibbert is wrought as a morality play, where a situation is calibrated only to see what happens to those who hover around it. And, in the various rooms where the action takes place, Hibbert and director Gavin Hood are willing to take on an aggressively satirical tone, as with the blowhard American characters who mostly seemed bothered that they were consulted in the first place. Drone warfare is certainly the prime interest in Hibbert’s telling, but it is actually a film about the ineptitude of bureaucracy in this context, where decisions are constantly referred up by people who would rather not take on the ethical consequences of the situation themselves. In focusing on the endless complexities of this human element, Eye in the Sky wisely doesn’t play sides—at best, it will play as a Rorschach test for those most committed to their position.