DVD Reviews

Triage – DVD Review

By Jeff Swindoll Aug 18, 2010, 17:43 GMT

After a traumatic, near death experience in Kurdistan, Mark, a battle-scarred war photographer, returns home without his friend and colleague Colin. As Mark struggles to recover, he reveals the shocking truth behind Colin’s disappearance. Starring Colin Farrell, Christopher Lee, Kelly Reilly and Paz Vega. ...more

A shell-shocked combat photographer returns from Kurdistan with a secret.  He’s drawn back from the brink by his wife’s estranged grandfather and those scenes are more affecting than the not-so-mysterious mystery aspect.

Mark Walsh (Colin Farrell) is a photographer who has been in and out of war zones enough to be seasoned in the horrors of them.  His latest trip is to Kurdistan where he and his best friend David (Jamie Sives) are photographing a make-ship medical unit where Dr. Talzani (Branko Duric) euthanizes patients whose injuries are too numerous to make it through the desert heat. 

The doctor examines the patient and if they’re too injured they get a yellow paper and if they’ll make it they get a purple paper.  The patient is all too aware of what a yellow paper prescription will get them – a bullet in the head.  David, whose wife Diane (Kelly Reilly) is expecting their first child, can’t take the sights of the war zone and sets off to return home. 

Mark stays behind for more shots, but soon he finds himself shot up and in the unit of Dr. Talzani.  He watches anxiously as the doctor looks him over and puzzles over which paper to present him.  Luckily, it’s yellow and Mark eventually goes home to his wife Elena (Paz Vega). 

David hasn’t returned home and soon Mark is acting strangely.  Strangely enough that Elena makes up with her estranged psychiatrist grandfather Joaquin (Christopher Lee) so that he’ll come and find out what is wrong with Mark.  

Triage is a film that purports to be a mystery but the resolution isn’t all that mysterious.  We’re pretty much divined what has happened to Mark and David in Kurdistan.  We might not have figured out how it all happened but the solution is pretty much telegraphed and easy to figure out.  So it’s not the resolution to the mystery that will keep you watching, it’s the performances that keep you glued to the television. 

First, we have the horrors of the makeshift triage.  Our wounded patients wait in terror to see which color they will be presented.  They know if it’s the canary yellow that their time on this earth is limited to when the doctor will march them out to the desert and administer the coup-de-grace.  There’s a subtle horror to the choice of the one who is first supposed to “do no harm.” 

War makes men do horrific things though.  War also affects men in different ways as we learn with Mark.  He comes back home a shattered man, nothing like the headstrong men who left.  So different that his wife swallows her pride to call her psychiatrist grandfather, a man she falsely considered a fascist and had walked away from. 

This also allows some great scenes between Christopher Lee and Colin Farrell.  This may be the best part of the show as the two have some interesting conversations trying to figure out what is going on with Mark (again, it’s not too hard to figure out).         

Triage is presented in widescreen (2.35:1) and is enhanced for 16x9 televisions.  Special features include a 19 minute making of, 9 minutes of “B Roll Footage” (behind-the-scenes), the 2 minute trailer, and 27 minutes of “Soundbites” interviews with Farrell, Vega, Lee, director Danis Tanovic, and others.  

Triage touches on some horrors of war, thanks to it being based on a novel by war correspondent Scott Anderson.  It also features some wonderful acting.  The mystery isn’t hard to figure out, but we keep watching for the performances.  

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