War Book (2014)

Director: Tom Harper
Starring: Ben Chaplin, Shaun Evans, Sophie Okenedo, Kerry Fox, Phoebe Fox, Antony Sher, Nathan Stewart-Jarrett, Adeel Akhtar, Nicholas Burns
Certificate: 15
Genre: Drama
Awards: None

For years, civil servants have played a game of "what if", where they plan for a hypothetical threat towards nuclear war. In 2014, things go more or less the same except a minister has taken the place of one of the civil servants.

War Book is a film that creates or the twists and turns through its dialogue and it does create a gripping narrative. One crucial reveal changes the whole context of the story and makes it a much scarier tale.

yet, whilst the overall story is told well, the individual characters all fall slightly short. None are given to much focus, but enough to make you expect more. Some characters are given a slightly mysterious backstory and motive that is never really fully grasped whilst others have traits brought to the forefront that are not touched upon again.

War Book is an enjoyable film but it doesn't do anything too special to make it stand out against its peers and people may be disappointed at how far it goes with it's potential.

***Okay