Venice Review: Tobias Lindholm's Bruising, Brooding 'A War' Starring Pilou Asbæk

Company Commander Claus Pedersen is a good man. We know this from practically the first scene in Danish director Tobias Lindholm's "A War," and not just because he is played with characteristic everyman integrity by the preternaturally sympathetic Pilou Asbæk. It's in the way he hovers worriedly over the radio back at base camp as he hears news of a routine patrol of the surrounding Afghan countryside going horribly awry. It's in the way he picks the exact right tone of voice to talk to the shellshocked men who return, some splattered with blood not their own. It's in the way his goodness is mirrored in that of his wife Maria (Tuva Novotny) at home in Denmark, raising three unruly children without him, in wry good humor. We know Claus is a good man for every decision he makes and every motivation he has throughout the course of this bruising two hours of you-are-there cinema, and we also know that his goodness is not going to be good enough. After just two prior...