Juliette Binoche shines as conflict photographer, mother

Starring Juliete Binoche and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau. Directed by Erik Poppe.

Unrated. Check listings for theaters. 1 hour, 57 minutes.

Bottom line: Compelling drama of a family at a crossroads

Juliette Binoche is a conflict photographer who is collateral damage in a suicide blast in Afghanistan as Norwegian filmmaker Erik Poppe’s “1,000 Times Good Night” opens. Turns out, as she recovers from her wounds back home with her family in Ireland, the real conflict is within her family.

“I want people to see, to choke on their coffee and react. That’s what I want,” Binoche’s Rebecca says. Actually, she’s addicted to an adrenaline thrill and political ideology she can’t get out of her life as a wife to a marine biologist and mother to two daughters, including a teenager who isn’t sure if she hates her mother for putting career above family or wants to follow in her footsteps.

Poppe is a former conflict photographer himself, and scenes in Afghanistan and Kenya are well-handled. But the family drama is just as compelling; there are no easy solutions or melodramatic flourishes, but a subtle, densely layered portrait of a real family at a crossroads.

The whole cast is good, but as always, all roads lead to Binoche, who is wonderful.