An Acceptable Loss

An Acceptable Loss

Every conflict carries a considerable price tag, which robs people or even nations of their humanity. But what is the line, if indeed any exists, that separates acceptable conduct in wartime from that which is not? This perennial question for artists especially in a world still grappling with the moral implications of the post-Sept. 11 era has been asked before. Joe Chappelle’s new political thriller, “An Acceptable Loss,” named for one ethical dilemma among many, concerns a woman in power who has guiltily signed off on a catastrophe.

It’s a big subject and writer-director Chappelle takes it on in basic ways that do his gigantic theme no justice at all. Though he dutifully runs through the tragic events caused by his spiritually battered protagonist (as played by Tika Sumpter), Chappelle so early splits arguments into right and wrong camps and asks only half-baked questions that there is little to engage us.

We meet Elizabeth “Libby” Lamm as she takes up a teaching post at a Chicago college amid worldwide protests against her; hardly anyone will shake her hand or look her in the eye. Through methodically parsed flashbacks, “An Acceptable Loss” then shows us just how big Libby’s dark secret is: A former high-ranking government official who was responsible for national security advisory during some unknown but recent administration, she greenlighted an unnamed devastating military action overseas that killed 140,000-some civilians including children.

She sleeps with a gun under her pillow but never uses phone or email (which I’m sorry is not plausible) and frequently gets accosted by random passers-by who proceed to remind her rather bluntly about what she did overactedly. Meanwhile Martin (Ben Tavassoli), a political science grad student whose motives are initially unknown but eventually become clear if you didn’t see them coming already from literally miles away because this is a lazy script, has been pursuing Libby so that she can expose the coldblooded Rachel Burke (Jamie Lee Curtis), who masterminded the ruinous raid meant to signal the beginning of the end for the war on terror.

Unsurprisingly, given her track record (including being unreasonably excellent in “Southside With You” as Michelle Robinson on her first date with Barack Obama), Curtis along with Sumpter is easily “An Acceptable Loss’s” strongest asset. Yet they’re both hamstrung by a story so stone faced it feels dutiful rather than thrillingly open-ended. The script fails to do enough to make Libby’s internal agony relatable, while also doing too little with Rachel beyond establishing utter political villainy without believable character motivation. This is true of all involved; no one here preaches about what they believe in Americanism, the totality of the war on terror etc. so much as simply reads their lines by rote.

According to reports, Chappelle drew his characters in order to explore the human conscience and guilt that come with irreversible political decisions from two highly regarded political documentaries by the great Errol Morris “The Fog of War” and “The Unknown Known.” His Rachel and Libby were allegedly modeled after Donald Rumsfeld and Robert McNamara respectively, as both these men grappled internally with what happened during their own time at war but did so very differently.

For this reason alone we should credit Chappelle for putting women into these parts; however, he could have gone further by examining them within a mostly male or predominantly white setting such as Libby’s hometown. Among its many screaming matches between fictionalized politicians and cat-and-mouse games where characters pursue vaguely defined personal agendas, there is little depth to be found in “An Acceptable Loss,” which only thrills if you consider it against a couple of hours’ worth of C-SPAN.

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