Words of War (2025) Movie Review: Lacks the Fire and Gusto of its Indomitable Protagonist

James Strong’s “Words of War” is a simple-minded, unimaginative, and frankly insipid biopic of trailblazing Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya, who died fighting for a cause. Her steadfastness to her beliefs cost her deeply, but she remains an example of daring journalism. Maxine Peake essays the valiant journalist who fought tooth and nail with the Russian establishment, the jingoistic mood of her own nation that contravenes her beliefs. She’s ready to fling herself through hellish circumstances, the deepest peril if her truth-telling demands it. She balks at nothing.

Peake does her best to channel righteous rage, but there’s only so much she can do, stunted by Eric Poppen’s script, which displays no interest or inclination in plumbing her doubts. She’s rock-solid in her certitude. Her moral fire is abiding, not dimming in the most severe challenges. Even when her boss, played by Ciaran Hinds, tells her to go softer, she refuses to dilute her position. She is very sure of her decisions, assured that they are impeccable morally and ethically. The Russian war on Chechnya attracts all her priorities, gaining topmost attention. Anna is curious, questioning, not hemmed in by the flattening interests of an easy, safe life that is complacent and risk-free. She wants more, to dig deeper into her country’s uncomfortable malaise, and ask the toughest questions nobody is flagging.

A lot of issues with the film can be directed at its approach and tone. It’s sincere but too workmanlike. It proceeds in a fairly conventional manner. Anna is unflinching and unshakable in her pursuit of facts. She reports the absolute truth, paying no heed to or concessions to the ruling dispensation that operates with terror and lies. Her fearlessness stems from her faith in upholding humanity. She has no allegiances except to documenting injustice and barbarity. Calling out the regime on its abundant gaslighting, the countless manipulations it feeds citizens, she’s not one to back off, but double down.

It’s a shame the film doesn’t rise to the blazing ferocity Anna exhibits, even after a nasty life threat. Where’s the grit, the tenacity? The film fixates on Anna with a dull righteousness. It’s implied that she buries herself in work. Her surging concern for the helpless arrests her constant attention. Her son, played by a seething Harry Lawtey who’s mostly wasted, especially chafes at her relentless pursuits. He requests that she be more attentive to family matters. When will she be interested in them?

Words of War (2025) — A still from “Words of War” (2025)

In a pained moment, all he asks is that she doesn’t get killed. That’s what propels his earnest, at times overbearing attempts to make her retract her stance. Anna doesn’t listen. She is fully committed to what she thinks is best. She cannot just resign herself to the vagaries of the world and pursue her daily affairs. The horrors and agony of the world, civilians suffering under duress, bother her. She doesn’t even try to emotionally distance herself from the conflict that trails her career. It hovers always, demanding she cover it with honesty and rigor. She goes back to the story of Chechnya despite repeated warnings. She owes it to them to be honest. She’s promised them.

The film is curiously misplaced and sketchy when it comes to those directly under the attack of the Kremlin. The occupation spares none, not even children. What Anna does is to unmask it. There’s nothing holding her back. Applauded as she may be for being the conscience of Russia, she has to battle immense, intense intimidation by the establishment that’s wholly aimed at wiping out any negative, damaging projections by the media. Essentially, the entire press is rendered puny and servile. There are certain hard, binding boundaries beyond which the press cannot stray. Anna must stick within those.

“Words of War” gets too caught up eventually in the divide between Russia and the occupied population demanding freedom. Hostage scenes are blandly interjected with people whom Anna befriended and knew well, meeting her again in very different situations. Loss comes sweeping right when she’s about to be bestowed a prize for her brave work. “Words of War” doesn’t quite tap the tussle at play here. Anna’s incendiary spirit, her uncompromising work ethic deserve a richer, more compelling film.