in so many ways
By By Taylor V A Nars Dale Newreleases
An FBI team, led by Jamie Foxx, finagles its way to Riyadh to investigate the bombing of a Western housing compound and find and kill the Saudi terrorists who perpetrated the crime.
In Peter Berg’s terror/thriller, more often than not, the Saudis are presented as incompetent investigators (contaminating the crime scene) and the Americans as macho, headstrong, get-it-done-now types. Despite the stereotypes, Foxx is every woman’s fantasy — tough, stern and full of bravado while dealing with the Saudi police yet taciturn and persuasive when questioned at a sit down with a Saudi Prince. It’s his graceful response to the Prince’s query “What have you seen so far in our Kingdom?” which allows Foxx to manipulate the situation, convince the Prince to rethink his original position, and grant the FBI crew more leeway with their investigation.
“The Kingdom”
“Syriana,” — — It’s not but it doesn’t have to be
That within five days the team is able to hunt down and eradicate the terror threat is beyond plausible — you’ll find yourself wishing the real “war on terror” could be fought so adroitly. Yes folks, it’s a movie. And at its core, “The Kingdom” is a male bonding flick with its two like-minded police officers realizing they share similar wants and needs — to kill the bad guys.
As with any film depicting war, where life hangs in precarious balance, there’s just the right amount of levity and almost all comic relief is given to Jason Bateman. His line, “It’s pronounced, Leh-vit, not Liv-et. I’m not a French Canadian,” elucidating the Saudis on the finer points of American phonetics while clearly emphasizing and extolling his Jewish heritage received the most laughs, and to his credit, Peter Berg does a bang up job at balancing the action (which rarely stops) with the drama, the poignancy and the humor.
Ashraf Barhom gives a convincing performance as the Saudi Colonel (with a particular loathing for invectives) who juggles incompetence and injustice within his department with the added pressure of babysitting the FBI. Jeremy Piven holds back just the right amount of “Ari Gold” so as to make his cameos believable without ever going over the top.
Stylistically, and true to Berg’s trademark, one wonders if the close-cropped, jarring, frenetic camera jockeying and jumpcut edits were not constructed to mask the fact that the bulk of the desert scenes were shot in Mesa, Arizona. These points aside, the deeper emotional levels explored in this film are sure to resonate with a broad audience.
Foxx’s ending line succinctly addresses the futility of war simultaneously proving we are culturally more alike than different with each side striving for the same outcome — though you may be surprised how honest the answer is.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on August 30, 2007. Read the original PDF.