Parents' Guide to

An Acceptable Loss

By Jeffrey Anderson, Common Sense Media Reviewer

age 15+

Ambitious but mature, highly flawed political thriller.

Movie R 2019 102 minutes
An Acceptable Loss Poster Image

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

Community Reviews

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age 16+

Based on 1 parent review

govnegotiator
govnegotiator Adult
February 11, 2020
age 16+

Excellent Adult Intrigue

Not for family entertainment but a thought provoking movie that is well scripted and acted out.

This title has:

Great messages
See all 1 parent review

What's the Story?

In AN ACCEPTABLE LOSS, former national security advisor Libby Lamm (Tika Sumpter) is now teaching at a university, constantly on her guard while writing a memoir. She doesn't have a phone or a computer and writes longhand in notebooks while safe behind a myriad of locks and alarms. As she writes, viewers learn more and more about her involvement with Vice President Rachel Burke (Jamie Lee Curtis) and an attack on Syria that was meant to wipe out six international terrorist leaders. A student, Martin (Ben Tavassoli), becomes obsessed with Libby and starts following/spying on her. At the same time, her former employers track her down and demand to know where her loyalties lie. If Libby tells the truth, there could be big trouble.

Is It Any Good?

Our review:
Parents say: (1):
Kids say: Not yet rated

This political thriller is ambitious and timely, but it's also disappointingly awkward, with stilted performances in the first half, and a second half that gets increasingly routine and ridiculous. Written and directed by Joe Chappelle -- whose earlier film work consists of low-grade genre stuff like Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers, Phantoms, and The Skulls II -- An Acceptable Loss starts with an intriguing scenario. Libby was directly involved in a decision to take out 150,000 bystanders in order to target six important terrorists, and now she must live with the fallout. The movie is honest in dealing with the situation both in the way that Libby is hit with questions and accusations (and sometimes even support) wherever she goes and in the way she has retreated into a world of spareness and suspicion.

But as soon as the movie starts, the most basic scenes play stiffly, with actors who appear to be at different levels or in different spaces. Aside from her hidden depths, Libby is weirdly static, rarely making an organic move from within; everything acts upon her. And, despite her brains and paranoia, it's frustrating how easy it is for Martin to breach her security system. From there, the movie turns into an absolutely silly, brainless chase in which nothing anyone does makes much sense. An Acceptable Loss could have been an incendiary, ferocious movie, instead of the limp one it is; at least Curtis is totally committed to her malevolent, razor-edged political powerhouse character.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

  • Families can talk about An Acceptable Loss' violence. What's shown/not shown? How does that affect its impact?

  • How does the movie depict sex? What values are imparted?

  • What is an "acceptable loss"? Do you agree or disagree with this term as it relates to the movie? In general?

  • For a time, the main character is "off the grid," with no phone, email, computer, etc. What do you think that would be like?

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