Critics reviews

As a matter of form complimenting content, these choices reflect the film's gradual descent into a more conventional and uncomplicated style. A Perfect Day finally seems conspicuously at odds with itself, neither funny nor impassioned enough to pass as an accomplished vision of transnational welfare.

Politically, the movie is a muddle, but it seems to subscribe to the "Chinatown" notion that intervention has a tendency to make matters worse. The interpreter constantly reminds Robbins's character that humor doesn't always translate, and the protagonists are often one step behind those they're charged with helping. It's not a consistent movie, but it has cutting moments.

There's a little something of early Robert Altman in this enjoyably spiky comic war movie from the Spanish director Fernando León de Aranda: think of it as a second helping of M*A*S*H.

A Perfect Day isn't perfect – the comic one-liners, the critique of the UN protection force's procedure-bound bureaucracy, and the tragedy-of-war sentiment sometimes make for a bumpy tonal ride. But the humanity of the enterprise, hovering between sympathy and ironic detachment, keeps the script on course, delivering a story that for all its motley-band-of-brothers clichés feels as authentic as many more pious takes on the Bosnian conflict.

Despite the appreciably restrained, low-key approach, the character-driven humor never finds a proper groove in what amounts to a so-so retread of earlier mid-conflict comedies like "MASH" and "The Hunting Party.