'In the Land of Blood and Honey' (11)

'In the land of Blood and Honey' (R) (11) (2 STARS)

Written and Directed By Angelina Jolie
Starring: Zana Marjanovic, Goran Kostic, Rade Serbedzija

Angelina Jolie is a very smart actress and political activist and she makes a sturdy and impressive directorial debut with "In the Land of Blood and Honey". I like the look of the movie and the acting and Jolie proves she could be an amazing director. I just wanted a stronger love story to counter balance the repetitive rape scenes and bombings. I wouldn't mind all the grim scenes because the subject matter is stark and sobering but I felt the main story lacked strength to strike a good balance.

"In the Land of Blood and Honey" is set during the Bosnian War in the mid 90's and has a promising and convoluted love story set amid the conflict. Ajla and Danijel are first seen at a night club in Bosnia when an explosion goes off as they are dancing close to each other. This is before the war starts and their relationship is halted. Danijel is fighting for the Serbs and Ajla is a Muslim and is hated by the Christian Serbs. Danijel is one of those Serbs and their growing love will be tested by Danijel's loyalty to the other side.

Angelina Jolie does a great job capturing the ugliness and tragedy of this senseless war. Her directing is assured and completely focused but it is her writing of the story that lets her down. There are a lot of rape scenes as a movie capturing this war should have. So many Muslim women were raped and many women, men and children were needlessly shot dead. This is a war movie that is in the mold of "Schindler's List" which was a brutal movie. The difference was that "Schindler's List" had an amazing and powerful story in the middle of the carnage. "In the Land of Blood and Honey" lost my interest quickly because I felt Ajla and Danijel's love story grew tiresome to me so that all the kill shots and rape scenes had the same effect on me. You need a story to grab on to if you are dealing with subject matter like this.

I also did not learn anything about the Bosnian War from this movie and there are no explanations for why there was all this senseless rape and killing. This movie also needed something like "Hotel Rwanda" with a main character we believed in and something to explain why this conflict was happening. The acting by Zana Marjanovic and Goran Kostic is very good but their characters kind of bored me after a while. Angelina Jolie has a very promising future career as a director, she has the chops. Sadly her first film needed better writing and more firepower. Saying that I do hope to see Jolie direct another movie very soon.

P.S. For better types of movies like this you should check back on Steven Spielberg's iconic and powerful "Schindler's List", "Hotel Rwanda" and "United 93".