Review of Triage (2009) by Christine B — 04 Jan 2011

Triage is an incredibly powerful, emotional film about the scars of war, survivor's guilt, and the human ego's judgment of others' behaviour in unimaginable situations. Deftly executed by the Oscar Award winning director of "No Man's Land", Danis Tanovic (who also wrote the screenplay), this provocative film leaves you thinking about it long after it ends while the actors' performances in it simply blow you away.

Colin Farrell (who appears to have lost a lot of weight for this role) gives an Oscar worthy performance as Mark Walsh, a war photojournalist who travels to Kurdistan in 1988 with his best friend David, (Jamie Sives) whom he has convinced to accompany him against David's better judgment. They endure horrific circumstances after which Mark returns to Dublin, injured and suffering from PTSD, but no one has seen or heard from David. Mark's Spanish wife Elena is really worried about him and calls on her estranged grandfather, Joaquin Morales, who is a retired psychologist, to counsel her husband, and he slowly unravels the truth behind Mark's trauma.

While the ending isn't a surprise, I can forgive the director because the acting in this film is so damn good. Both Paz Vega and Kelly Reilly give convincing performances as the photojournalists' strong and independent wives, and Branko Djuric is superb as a Kurd doctor of war, but it is Christopher Lee as Morales who really shines and every scene that he is in with Colin Farrell is so compelling to watch that you can't take your eyes off either of them. Their chemistry is palpable and 88 year old Lee is absolutely perfect for the part.

I found the special features on the DVD, which included SoundBytes from the principal cast to be fascinating as well and I must say that although I've been a fan of Colin Farrell's since I saw him in Tigerland, I am now officially madly in love with him and am convinced that he will one day win that Oscar that he so truly deserves.