Film

An Ordinary Man

Name: An Ordinary Man
Genre: Action, Drama, War
Released: 2017
Cast: Ben Kingsley, Hera Hilmar, Peter Serafinowicz, Edmund Kingsley, Robert Blythe

War drama
Crime
Very dark

A war criminal hiding in Eastern Europe develops an unexpected bond with his maid, the only person he sees. Ben Kingsley anchors a morally complex chamber piece about complicity, redemption, and the human need for connection even when undeserved. It's a tense, dialogue-driven drama that refuses easy answers.

TMDb rating

3.1

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you are drawn to quiet, claustrophobic character studies where a single location and two performers carry the weight, and you don't mind moral discomfort left unresolved.

Skip it if the action stays in one apartment, so if you want battlefield scenes or a propulsive thriller, this will feel like a waiting room.

What it asks of you: Its ninety minutes move at a slow, stifling pace where dialogue and small gestures carry more than plot, and the dark moral material offers little relief.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

A Prophet2009

A brutally intelligent prison drama about a young man transformed by incarceration and moral compromise. Like An Ordinary Man, it explores how proximity breeds unexpected understanding between people separated by violence and power.

But Subtitled, French, and deliberately paced. It demands patience and won't provide catharsis or neat resolution.

The Counselor2013

Cormac McCarthy's meditations on guilt and complicity delivered through a man who thought himself above the ugliness he enabled. Shares An Ordinary Man's fascination with how conscience emerges too late.

But Cryptic, frustrating dialogue and a refusal to judge its protagonist will feel evasive if you want moral clarity.

The Pianist2002

Another war-era survival story about moral compromise and the relationships that sustain us through atrocity. Adrien Brody's quiet performance mirrors Kingsley's—both men learning that survival often requires compromises you'll regret.

But Extremely heavy subject matter. Not a film that lets you feel good about yourself for watching it.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from An Ordinary Man

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

The Tragedy of Man2011

Both are interested in whether a single human conversation—or lifetime—can contain the weight of civilization's sins. Both ask if understanding changes guilt.

An animated adaptation of a Hungarian play spanning the full scope of human history and suffering. Wildly ambitious in ways An Ordinary Man is not, but shares the same belief that moral philosophy is the only thing worth making art about.

But Animated, three hours, philosophically dense, and visually grotesque. It won't feel like a film made for popular audiences.

You Were Never Really Here2017

A chamber piece about a damaged man and an unlikely human connection. Both films trust their actors in intimate scenes more than plot, and both explore whether broken people can still reach each other.

But Deliberately fragmented, sometimes incoherent. Joaquin Phoenix's performance borders on incomprehensible.

Cold War2018

Eastern European setting, postwar trauma, two people drawn together across ideological divides. A Polish film that understands the moral rubble left behind when empires collapse.

But Black and white cinematography and a slow, elegiac pace. Not interested in plot momentum or narrative satisfaction.

A Separation2011

A domestic drama that becomes a moral interrogation. Like An Ordinary Man, it traps characters in a room and forces them to confront where they've actually ended up.

But Iranian cinema, subtitled, and the ending will feel deliberately incomplete to Western viewers expecting resolution.

Sleuth1972

Two men, one room, 90 minutes. A masterclass in how tension builds between people who know too much about each other and must keep talking.

But More a theatrical puzzle than a film. If you find stage-bound dramas claustrophobic, this will test your patience.

The Confession2010

A Czech film about an aging man reckoning with his past, including his time as an informant. Shares An Ordinary Man's interest in how people live with what they've done.

But Slow and meditative to the point of being austere. The narrative is fractured and intentionally disorienting.

Contempt1963

Godard's study of a relationship under observation, where proximity breeds not intimacy but the collapse of understanding. A different film entirely, but that same interest in what happens when two people cannot escape each other.

But Experimental cinema from the 1960s. Long takes, theoretical dialogue, and a plot that dissolves into meta-commentary.

The Killing Fields1984

Where An Ordinary Man asks what we owe to our oppressors, The Killing Fields asks what we owe to our victims. Together they bracket the full moral catastrophe.

A historical drama about a Cambodian journalist and his American counterpart surviving Khmer Rouge atrocities. It's visceral where An Ordinary Man is intimate, but both films grapple with how complicity and survival are entangled, and whether decency is possible at the edge of human evil.

But Graphic violence and scenes of mass death. One of the few war films that doesn't flinch from the reality of what genocide looks like.