Pitt mugs a caricature

Rating: 5/10 (23 June 2017)

War Machine has a fine script and a cast of incredibly talented actors who gave their all to the characters they portrayed-except for the star. I like Brad Pitt and think he's a terrific actor, but he needs a strong director who isn't afraid to tell him to stop mugging and start acting. Unfortunately, for most of the movie he delivered a nudge-nudge-wink-wink "I think this guy I'm playing is a real tool" caricature of a performance. I don't know if he thinks the audience is incapable of not swooning over his handsome face every time we see it, or he lacks the confidence to play a non-romantic, semi-unsympathetic lead character with the straight respect every character (and the audience) deserves. This movie would have been near perfect if only he'd done that.
The movie makes important and interesting points about career soldiers who are true-believers, enlistees caught in something they don't understand but who're committed to give everything, the politics and big business of war, futility of thinking we can win the hearts of a people whose country we've invaded... and does so entertainingly!
There's no shortage of stand-out performances: Meg Tilly, Ben Kingsley, Will Poulter, Alan Ruck, Lakeith Stanfield, Tilda Swinton, Emory Cohen are just a few of the amazing players in this large-as-an-army cast. In the end I found myself wishing Brad Pitt and Russell Crowe had switched parts.