Delayed Reaction: Camp X-Ray

The Pitch: Just because you're stuck in Guantanamo Bay, doesn't mean you're a bad guy.

I should start by admitting that I went into this confusing it with another film. I was thinking of the documentary The Invisible War, about sexual assaults on female officers in the US Military. That's not what Camp X-Ray is about at all (except for maybe one scene). I spent a lot of the movie waiting for the moment when the sexual assault stuff would kick in and it didn't. That confused me longer than it should've.

Kristen Stewart and Peyman Moaadi are quite good in this. That appears to be universally agreed on except by the most ardent Stewart haters. Whether or not they are good despite having bad material interests me more. I preferred the small touches over the big ones. The discussions about the Harry Potter book encapsulate most of what I liked and disliked about the film. The fact that something so small becomes an obsession of Moaadi's feels real for the situation. Stewart supplying the library with the book and including a message to him is thematically on the nose though. As with a lot of Sundance movies, this feels pretty thin. Even 117 minutes felt a little too long. For what it is though, a two-hander character study, it's pretty good.

Verdict (?): Weakly Recommend