reviews
Dir. Peter Berg
Rating: 7.8 | 0 User Reviews | Send to Friend
By David Thomas
This is the type of film that is bound to impress some while pissing off others. Some will find it too simplistic; others might feel it's insulting to Saudis. For this critic, it ends up being considerably greater than the sum of its occasionally flawed parts. The film begins with a fast-paced but informative timeline of Saudi Arabia, going back to the discovery of oil and following through to 9/11. What follows is a brutal terrorist attack on an American base in Saudi Arabia (a.k.a. "the kingdom") and the ensuing investigation. Ronald Fleury (Jamie Foxx) finesses his F.B.I. team into the usually-barred-from-American-eyes crime scene and convinces Al-Ghazi (Ashraf Barhom), the Saudi colonel assigned to keep him from seeing the truth, to help him discover it. As a criminal procedural, the answers sometimes come a bit too easily, but the interplay between Fleury and Al-Ghazi is fascinating to watch. Director Peter Berg pulls no punches in showing the brutal violence of this world, but he also brings an eye for the quotidian life that he brought to both the film and television versions of "Friday Night Lights." The result is a not necessarily balanced, but at least richer, view of the region. The final act, an extended action sequence in which the team tries to rescue a comrade, pulses with intensity; and while it concludes with another one of those answers that comes a bit too easily, the final moments are where it shows its true, ambivalent colors. The last line is worth the wait, in other words. For a more truly subversive modern war film, David O. Russell's "Three Kings" still holds the edge, but "The Kingdom" will take you on a journey both hostile and enlightening, leaving you quivering in your seat.
0 User Reviews
Add A Review
