Related in real time,
Eye in the Sky goes through the stages of a British drone strike on Islamic suicide bombers in Nairobi. The painstakingly assembled operation hits a hurdle when a small girl is spotted on the ground right next to the target, and then numerous levels of hierarchy right up to the Prime Minister have to be consulted for approval with the seconds ticking away. This is all handled with credible complexity, with political qualms creating procrastination and buck-passing and those detailed with executing the actual kill shot almost unable to cope with the ethics of their actions. The human drama is somewhat hindered by the very nature of the set-up, with all the involved parties thousands of miles apart and communicating through screens and phones, but the technical verisimilitude is convincing and the strong cast, notably Helen Mirren and Alan Rickman in his last film as the British military representatives, helps to overcome the scenario's inbuilt barriers to viewer engagement.
But it's nevertheless a shame how it seems to have been felt necessary to make the focal point for the moral dilemma something so cliched as a totally innocent little girl, and that this would somehow cause hardened military personnel to cry their eyes out. We ultimately know the world depicted is a more cold and mechanical place than this film would have you believe.
6/10
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