'Eye in the Sky' a tight, high-tech morality tale

What South African director Gavin Hood and his filmmakers do with the military drone drama "Eye in the Sky" is nothing short of astonishing.

They take what could easily be a static, one-set, one-act, real-time chamber drama and expand it into a crackling conversation about wartime ethics. It's a tight, twisty high-tech morality tale teeming with tragedy and tension.

American drones (one disguised as a big black flying bug) confirm that al-Shabaab terrorists in a densely populated Nairobi neighborhood are loading up on suicide vests.

Col. Katherine Powell (an iron-willed Helen Mirren) demands that a "kill" mission be executed before the terrorists leave and the opportunity to stop them from murdering untold numbers of people passes.

Her commanding officer Lt. Gen. Frank Benson (the late Alan Rickman, armed with his trademark low-key snarl), agrees that they should fire a smart missile from a drone over Nairobi, even though it might kill many civilians.

But the action must be agreed to by British officials and by their own supervising politicians, all of whom - fearing Facebook and YouTube postings of the collateral damage - refuse to authorize the strike. They keep passing the buck up the ranks to their superiors.

These complications would be enough for most movies. But screenwriter Guy Hibbert adds one more, and it's a doozy: an adorable little girl (Aisha Takow) sets up a bread stand within the kill zone.

And the young U.S. drone commander (Aaron Paul) becomes stricken with a conscience attack.

Politics and practicality face off with personal morality in "Eye in the Sky," a drama so sharp and smart and sly that it comes close to a disturbingly ambiguous black comedy.

The articulate, persuasive arguments firmly convince us that Powell is right. Minutes later, a more persuasive argument from a British minister switches us to the other side. We become a tennis ball batted between the political players in one of the shrewdest, more relevant movies of our time.

"Never tell a soldier he doesn't know the true cost of war," Benson intones near the story's end.

There! The movie finally arrives at a conclusion we can all agree on.

Or can we?