Bad story development and 1 dimensional characters, but OK overall

Rating: 5/10 (26 February 2012)

It's not a bad movie. Actually it would have been a pretty good if it was a Bosnian movie, but it does not live up to the expectations of a Hollywood movie of a major movie star.
The story was weak - the main characters meet once, then they meet again when she is kidnapped by Serbian soldiers and they are suddenly in love. It feels like they were in a relationship before the war but the movie never makes that clear.
There is no background on the war, no explanation why any of these events are taking place, no reason where the all that hate is coming from.
The characters stroke me as emotionless. I understand that some of that could be attributed to being used to seeing death and atrocities during the war, but there is little war footage and it feels fake.
There is some character development, the Serbian commander has some second thoughts about the reasons behind the war, but overall he simply goes along with everything with little to no emotion and giving very little insight in his thoughts reasoning.
The cinematography was good, the acting was pretty good, the story is original and engaging even though it's not developed well.
"No Man's Land" is much better movie on the Bosnian war in my opinion.