Film Review: The Kingdom

by Philip Key, Liverpool Daily Post

The Kingdom, (Cert. 15, 110 mins)
Stars: Jamie Foxx, Chris Cooper, Jennifer Garner, Jason Bateman, Ashraf Barhom, Ali Suliman
Directed by Peter Berg

FOR A second time, the so-called War on Terror supplies the plot for a Hollywood movie. Unlike the fact-based A Mighty Heart, however, The Kingdom is pure fiction with lots of big bangs and gun battles.

Director Peter Berg and scriptwriter Matthew Michael Carnahan do attempt to give The Kingdom a sense of reality and, for much of the time, it works.

The uneasy mixture of politics and violence in the Middle East is sensitively explored but is eventually abandoned in favour of gung-ho American heroics.

While it does put the film out of kilter, it does provide an undeniably exciting finale.

The credit sequence gives a very brief documentary-style run-down of the history of Saudi Arabia where the film is mostly set, perhaps lacking in detail but useful for those who like a historical setting.

We are thrown into the action immediately as terrorists invade a Western compound in Saudi Arabia and blow up oil workers and their families while they are enjoying a picnic.

In Washington, officials are unwilling to investigate the blast because of political issues, but FBI specialist Ronald Fleury (played by Jamie Foxx) is determined to seek out the perpetrators, partly because a colleague has been killed in the blast.

He uses his own Saudi contacts to circumnavigate Washington and get permission to take a small investigative team in with him for just a few days.

This is like one of the teams from the CSI television series with people like a forensic pathologist (Jennifer Garner) and bomb expert Chris Cooper.

Once in Riyadh, the Saudi capital, however, they meet a wall of official disapproval with only police chief Faris Al Ghazi (sensitively played by Ashraf Barhom) willing to offer minimum help.

Much of the movie follows the team’s careful investigation involving body parts and bomb scraps, which eventually lead them to the people responsible.

Along the way, they encounter culture clashes (particularly in the role of women) and all sorts of political barriers are put in their way.

It develops as a pretty good who- dunnit with clues and occasional red herrings and, while it might be difficult to believe such a team could get a result in so short a time, it makes for some solid entertainment.

Foxx turns in a nicely understated performance, as does Ms Garner, although some other team members work rather too hard to provide comic elements to the story.

It also looks pretty believable, too, with the Saudi scenery very convincing, despite much of the movie being shot in Arizona.

The final gun battle is well staged with screaming car tyres, roaring guns, a man about to be beheaded, and more explosions. It’s edge-of-the-seat stuff.

One last scene also provides a suggestive comment on the War on Terrorism, a pretty cynical one at that.

Within the confines of a shoot ‘em up gung-ho movie, The Kingdom tries harder than most to offer an intelligent back story.

The result may be flawed but it is a pretty good effort.

philkey@dailypost.co.uk