‘Fog of War’ (2025) Movie Review - Michael Day’s Thriller is Okayish

An injured American pilot named Gene (Jake Abel) is asked to spy on his fiancée's family. She is an OSS officer named Penny (Brianna Hildebrand), and this couple goes to Massachusetts so that Gene can meet her extended family - Uncle Bob (John Cusack) and Aunt Maude (Mira Sorvino). Michael Day's Fog of War will leave you disappointed if you go into it for Cusack's performance. Firstly, there is no "performance" per se, given Cusack seems bored and irritated. Secondly, he is barely in the film as his character, after a certain point, disappears from the screen for an extended period of time (he takes Sorvino's Maude with him). Fog of War rests on the shoulders of Abel, Hildebrand, and Géza Röhrig. Röhrig steps into the shoes of Viktor, a refugee from Europe who wants to connect with his wife and two kids. Gene, though, refuses to buy Viktor's story. He suspects the latter could be a Nazi spy. When Gene tries to poke further into Viktor's history, he almost gets "impaled by a bucket of falling tools," which only strengthens his suspicions about this refugee. Penny dismisses Gene's theories, and considering that the characters stay at a remote estate surrounded by trees, Fog of War starts looking like a horror movie. Gene seems similar to one of those characters who is ignored by others whenever he mentions seeing the malevolent spirit. In this case, Viktor appears to be that "spirit."

Is Viktor actually a Nazi spy or not is the central mystery. If not Viktor, then who else could it be? You stay with Fog of War for the answer because there is nothing else worth holding onto in this film. The actors have talent but are reduced to their functions in the script. A character acts in a particular way just for the sake of red herring. Fog of War has narrative suspense - what it lacks is an atmosphere of dread and mystery. We learn how the fog covers the estate in the morning, but this foggy imagery never finds its way into the movie in such a way as to give it a visual potency. It merely connects itself to the story on a theoretical level by saying, "Like the trees in the morning, Gene is also surrounded by a metaphorical fog, which is why he is not seeing things clearly." And since the characters only advance the plot and have no real emotional depth (their backstories are delivered through disposable lines), we don't care what happens to them or where they will end up eventually. But Abel really throws himself into his role in this film. He doesn't care if the other elements are not as charged as him. I don't know how good Gene was as a pilot, but Abel is definitely very devoted to acting.

Final Score- [4/10]
Reviewed by - Vikas Yadav
Follow @vikasonorous on Twitter
Publisher at Midgard Times