Words of War Review — A Powerful but Straightforward Slice of Injustice

Words of War has everything you want in a film about a David-like journalist fighting a Goliath. The movie begins as a story of someone trying to make a name for herself after spending her entire adult life in the shadows of her profession. What it ultimately reveals, however, is not a blurred line between good and evil but one that is sharply defined with dire consequences.

Words of War follows the history of a Russian reporter and how their notable reputation became cemented in history, believing that a job is more than a job but a profession with a higher purpose. That’s even if her peers, family, and friends knew their reporting came with a toxic warning label. The result is a conventional and standard telling of an incredible real-life figure.

Words of War Review and Synopsis

The Bondsman Review — Kevin Bacon Brings the Heat in a Deliciously Dark Thrill Ride

Words of War is based on the true story of Anna Politkovskaya (The Theory of Everything‘s Maxine Peake), a Russian journalist and human rights activist who solidified her reputation by reporting on the Second Chechen War—after years of putting her life on hold to raise her children and support her husband Alexander (The White Lotus‘s Jason Isaacs), a popular television host.

Her editor, Dmitry Muratov (Academy Award nominee Ciarán Hinds)—the Nobel Peace Prize-winning founder of Novaya Gazeta—sends her behind enemy lines not as a traditional war correspondent but as a columnist tasked with exposing the atrocities in Chechnya that no one else is reporting: conflicts with the national coverage of Russian restraint.

What follows is a powerful glimpse into journalists’ peril when reporting the truth. Despite intimidation from top government officials, constant surveillance, attempts on her life, and her family’s understandable fear for her safety, she perseveres—continuing the fight to expose the reality unfolding before her eyes.

Sean Penn’s Words of War is a Powerful Testament to Freedom of the Press

Jason Isaacs and Maxine Peake in Words of War (2025) | Image via Rolling Pictures — Jason Isaacs and Maxine Peake in *Words of War* (2025) | Image via Rolling Pictures

MobLand Review — Gritty, Brutal, and Addictive

Words of War is from James Strong, a veteran of directing episodic television like Doctor Who, Torchwood, and Broadchurch. This is his first narrative feature film behind the camera, working with a script from Eric Poppen, his first since 2007’s Borderland. Their film is a straightforward, almost television movie of the week format, offering few surprises along the way.

Fortunately, the subject matter is powerful enough to keep the audience engaged and see the exercise through to the end. It helps that Maxine Peake performs sterling as the film’s main subject. With a fearless spirit made of Teflon, she is abused, threatened, and even poisoned as she writes what she sees when others won’t.

Peake brings just the right balance of strength, vulnerability, and—dare I say—naivety to the role, making Politkovskaya someone we both root for and fear for, which is essential in a film like this. However, Poppen’s script falls back on familiar tropes, such as the strained marriage with Isaac’s Alexander and the predictable clashes with her editors—conflicts that feel like cinematic paint-by-numbers.

Maxine Peake in Words of War (2025) | Image via Rolling Pictures — Maxine Peake in *Words of War (2025)* | Image via Rolling Pictures

Black Bag Review — Fassbender and Blanchett Have a License to Thrill

Is Words of War Worth Watching?

Words of War is worth watching because Strong’s film never forgets the human element of the case. For instance, a smart comparison to the awards circuit and the human cost when it comes to using people behind the lines to make sure stories are fully realized. It’s a gripping and insightful sequence that pulls no punches.

However, I would like to point out how jarring it is listening to these characters talk. They are all supposed to be Russian, yet all the actors speak their native English accents. (At least, if you remember in the Harrison Ford vehicle, K-19: The Widowmaker, all of them spoke in English, but in Russian accents.) You are talking about ordinary citizens, soldiers, and Russian intelligence operatives, which always takes you out of the immersive story.

The ending, again, even though based on a true story, doesn’t pull any punches. Many films like these will keep a sobering reality off-screen. However, Words of War is a film that unveils crimes, not covers them or shrouds them in secrecy. Anna Politkovskaya’s life story is worth telling, despite how it begins or ends.