A War is almost too measured in its treatment of military protocol

Lindholm’s approach to this potentially explosive material is so measured and deliberate that it’s hard to recognize where he’s taking the story—even the attack and bombing that eventually lead to Claus being court-martialed (or whatever the Danish equivalent of that process is called) play as just another scene. In fact, the entire first hour of A War alternates between Claus’ company in Afghanistan and Claus’ family back in Copenhagen, in a way that implicitly suggests a comparison between being a commander and being a parent. Claus’ wife, Maria (Tuva Novotny), has to take care of their three kids solo during his tour of duty—as the movie begins, he still has three months to go—and Lindholm quietly engineers parallels between his anxiety about his men’s safety and her anxiety about how the children are coping with his long absence. A scene in which Claus instructs a sniper targeting a Taliban soldier who’s using Afghan kids as a human shield, for example, rhymes with a scene in which Maria rushes their youngest son to the hospital after he eats a bunch of Tylenol capsules, holding the boy’s hand while his stomach is pumped.

So it’s something of a surprise when A War suddenly turns into a courtroom drama halfway through. Charged with bombing a civilian target without reasonable cause, Claus is sent back to Denmark to stand trial, and reluctantly agrees to plead not guilty—at Maria’s behest, for the sake of their kids—even though he knows that his decision was a disastrous error in judgment. This creates a certain amount of cognitive dissonance during the trial scenes, as it’s difficult to root for either conviction or acquittal. Compounding this confusion, Claus’ defense attorney (Søren Malling) is an unscrupulous slickster who more or less instructs Claus to commit perjury, while the prosecutor (Charlotte Munck) comes across as a passionate advocate for justice who recognizes Claus’ humanity while also insisting that he must be punished. The film is low-key and evenhanded to a fault, resisting opportunities for melodrama at every turn; it radiates intelligence and fairness, which, while admirable, don’t exactly inspire a strong emotional response. As a thoughtful alternative to overblown Hollywood war movies like Lone Survivor, however, it’s more than welcome.