In Erik Poppe's film, Rebecca (Juliette Binoche) is a photojournalist with a drive to cover some of the darkest things in some of the most dangerous parts of the world. In the opening scenes, Rebecca documents the journey of a young Kabul suicide bomber from getting wired up to eventually detonating; injured in the blast and struggling with PTSD, Rebecca returns home to find that her husband Marcus (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, still sporting his greasy Game of Thrones hair and beard) and older daughter Steph (Lauryn Canny) would prefer that she stopped risking her life so much. But Steph is also intrigued by her mother's work, and asks to go on Rebecca's next assignment, which they're promised will be far less dangerous. What's especially refreshing about the work-versus-home drama of A Thousand Times Good Night is that while it's inspired by the male director's own experiences as a war photographer, the typical gender roles are reversed. The soul of the film is the relationship between a mother and daughter, not a father and son, and the man is married to a woman six years his senior, as opposed to half his age. It's probably because it's an Irish-Norwegian film rather than American, but whatever the reason, it's a nice change of pace.
Tags: Film
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