I’ve seen my fair share of war films in my day. There have been so many war movies that have been made over the years. Because WWII is considered one of the biggest wars of all time there have been a lot of WWII films. For years now I’ve watched WWII movies and yet more keep coming out because there are so many stories still to tell about this large planet spanning war. ‘The Fog of War’ is the latest WWII film to come out. It’s a little different from most I’ve watched.

Gene (Jack Abel, malignant) is a fighter pilot that is shot down in enemy territory during WWII. He is running for his life when he is abruptly saved by a woman, Penny (Brianna Hildebrand, Deadpool). Fast forward a bit,. He is recuperating in a medical facility and ends up in a relationship with the woman who saved him in the field. With the fate of the war at hand some secret plans were stolen and the OSS recruits both Gene and his fiance Penny to infiltrate her aunt and  uncle’s farm in rural Massachusetts.  

As a fan of spy films I was glued to the screen while watching this movie. There is a spy aspect to this story that I haven’t seen since ”The Catcher Was a Spy’ starring Paul Rudd. That was a little different from this one though. Because of the single setting and a relatively small cast it had to grab me right away. Introducing a few characters besides the aunt, Mira Sorvino, and uncle, John Cusack, there are few ranch hands who add to the suspicions for Gene and Penny. Lets just say there is more than meets the eye to this story. And a few twists and turns.

With any film set in a specific time period you have to get the production design and so forth. The cars, clothes and hairstyles are all on par with this era. The things that people do are right in line with the other WWII movies I’ve seen. The cinematography is also pretty good. The location the film is set in is right on the ocean so there are plenty of scenes set on cliffs and some of the rural wooded areas. These look great on screen and I was blown away by how gorgeous this movie was. The technical aspects were some of the best I’ve seen this year.

I’ve been a fan of John Cusack for many years now. High Fidelity, The Grifters and Say Anything are some of my favorite films from him, but I’ve never seen him in a role quite like this one before. He is believable in this role even though he hasn’t done this type of thing before. He seems to be transitioning into the father figure or in this movie the uncle now in his career. I look forward to seeing what he has in store now after this performance. I think there are a lot of characters he can play at this point in his career if he is given the chance. Let’s see what’s next for him.

The two main actors Abel and Hildebrand are both worth the price of admission. They carry this WWII spy thriller quite well. Their back and forth was what I was most looking forward to. They work well opposite each other. There isn’t much romance in the film despite the pair being leaked romantically , but there is a reason for that I won’t spoil in this review. I can’t give everything away. I definitely would like to see the pair again in more films in the near future. They both kept me glued to whatever they were doing in this story because I didn’t want to miss anything important.

‘Fog of War’ has a double connotation, one being the weather early in the morning and the other being how confusing things can get during an era where you can’t trust anybody, home or abroad. That aspect of the story is what made it so interesting to me. I think others will like it for those reasons as well. The cast specifically Abel and Hildebrand are worth the price of admission, Cusack and Sorvino are also good to see. I haven’t seen them in a while. The technical aspects including, but not limited to the cinematography and production design are pretty good. Michael Day, the director, and Luke Langsdale, the screenwriter, both do a good job bringing this tale to life. I’m glad to have seen a different aspect of WWII that I have rarely seen before. Hopefully fans of this genre will feel the same way as I did while watching it. Especially the older generation.

3 stars

Dan Skip Allen