We’re now at the time of year when Hollywood looks at the important issues facing society and turns them into turgid, preachy melodramas starring overpaid actors who want to win Oscars. In 2007, that means lots of overly sensitive dramas about the war in Iraq and its costs to those at home, and at first glance one might expect The Kingdom to fall into the category. Based loosely on two actual terrorist attacks that occurred in Saudi Arabia, the movie focuses on the aftermath of the bombing of a compound for American workers in Riyadh. Although it takes place in such a volatile area and does address the issue of the American presence in the Middle East, this is not an issue film nearly as much as it is a thriller.
As it turns out, that’s a good thing. The movie starts out with a tense, suspenseful sequence as attackers prepare to shatter the tranquility of a deceptively all-American afternoon at the enclave for foreigners. A picnic and a baseball game are disrupted by gunfire, and then later rescue efforts are sabotaged when a bomb goes off in their midst. Throughout, director Peter Berg approaches these events more like something out of a Jack Ryan movie than a sober drama, and rather than seeming annoyingly glib, this technique immediately draws you into the story, putting you right in the shoes of the characters who are left to pick up the pieces.
Those people are FBI agents back in Washington, furious at the deaths of two of their own and the White House’s insistence that they not conduct their own investigation in Saudi Arabia. In classic action-movie tradition, the renegade leader of the team, Special Agent Ronald Fleury (Jamie Foxx), works back-room deals to get himself and his three associates on a late-night flight to Riyadh, where a sullen local policeman (Ashraf Barhom) is assigned to babysit them.
What follows from there is in many ways fairly predictable, but Berg has a gritty, immediate style that puts you right on the ground with the characters, and the script by Matthew Michael Carnahan has a relentless momentum that doesn’t allow much time for reflection, either on the broader political meaning of what’s happened or on the potential plot holes. The handheld look that Berg perfected on his last film, Friday Night Lights, and exported to the Lights TV show, works wonders here, giving a voyeuristic feel to scenes of interrogation and the occasional small domestic moment.
The cast, which includes Jennifer Garner, Chris Cooper and Jason Bateman as the other members of the FBI team, is almost uniformly strong, although Berg favorite Jeremy Piven gets a little schticky as a weaselly State Department liaison. As the film heads toward its conclusion, the action gets bigger, with car chases, gun battles and explosions, and the fate of the Saudi officer, who of course develops a mutual respect with Fleury, ends up a little pat and condescending.
It’s balanced by the surprisingly bleak ending, which suggests only a continuation of the cycle of violence between America and the Arab world. The fact that Berg spends most of the movie focusing on action over politics makes this simple moment all the more powerful. He doesn’t go overboard to make a statement, but when one comes, it’s heard loud and clear.
The Kingdom
*** 1/2
Jamie Foxx, Jennifer Garner, Chris Cooper, Jason Bateman, Ashraf Barhom
Directed by Peter Berg
Rated R
Opens Friday