Sunday, September 16, 2007

"The Kingdom" (2007) - Movie Review

Middle Eastern based movies involving terror plot has been avoided for sentimental reasons. Not especially for general kind of action movies it used to be, considered now a day. “Syriana” gave how circle of life literally played down involving politics, religion and greed. “The Kingdom” is a tightly paced and gripped film with the elements of instant anger, hatred, prejudice and redemption. It is a very nice attempt which also takes the action element into consideration and ends it with the message of hope and also hatred mingled.

The FBI evidence team is sent across to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia to investigate the bombings which happened in the compound where American Civilians reside. The team led by Ronald Fleury (Jamie Foxx), Janet Mayes (Jennifer Garner), Adam Leavitt (Jason Bateman) and Grant Sykes (Chris Cooper) lands with a notion of finding the killer. Their placement out there further jeopardizes the position of the government over there. Their safety takes precedence over the actual investigation. They are guided and told rules by the Saudi Police Captain Col. Al-Ghazi (Ashraf Barhom). In a strange land with everything been looked upon wrong from either side, finding the man behind this deadly thing becomes a more difficult task for both FBI team and the local police.

The way the movie started impressed me. They give the time line from 1930s in an animation model which is a crash course on the oil wealth and the connectivity of USA with Middle East. And the actual attack was shot with bitter reality of preciseness that even aware of the terrible disaster, we are forced to be curious in a manner of fear, helplessness and adrenaline. The action scenes are shot with the regular shoddy camera technique but it suits the purpose. The shoddy camera work properly when employed for the scenes involving foreign land. It worked for “Black Hawk Down”, “The Bourne Ultimatum” and it does work here too.

The film surfaces on the line of action genre with the real deep issues of being looked upon over the Middle East, or to hit it straight, religion and the people as such. Numerous movies come and go terrifically give the punch in the face of the issue of prejudice and religion. Still the fear lays the same. The anger remains the same. The hatred very well remains the same. The movie does materialize on those to the full extent on how “Syriana” does. It materializes in a manner which aids the movement of the screenplay and the actions speaks louder than words. The characters of the two sincere police officers played by Ashraf Barhom and as Sergeant Hatham, Ali Suliman. While Ali Suliman as one of the suicide bombers in the movie “Paradise Now” proved his presence, this movie is Ashraf’s play. He with Jamie Foxx is situated in the places possibly with best small dialogues building up to their friendship in a very minimal time.

The movies strong point is the way they surface the reality in a fast action manner. The entire series of events are gripping and horrifying face of violence, customs and old beliefs are torn upon. The manner the women are looked down and how it still exists. A police man gets totally angry over Mayes for touching the hand of dead man. He for a moment is able to forget the seniority and also that the person is some one unaware of their beliefs is a nutshell of how some people are. They reside every where and in India too. But the very same policeman is getting stopped by another policeman, Sgt. Haytham to suggest it to her. Finally while boarding the plane, she shakes hands with Haytham and says goodbye.

The only flaw I can think of is the constant display of names of characters and their positions which takes away the time from the characters and becomes irritating after a while. It is important to show those details in a movie based upon true events, but within twenty minutes we see fifteen names and their designations. A little too much of detail. The movie is a perfect material to be learned upon on the revenge and running that extra mile to understand the people. Despite the fact that the movie is powerful for its action genre, it is the content and the proceedings with substance which makes it closer to a brilliant piece.

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