Movie Review: The Kingdom

Posted by Nathan Deen (nathan@filmschoolrejects.com) on September 16, 2007

I really overlooked The Kingdom because I thought it would showcase action above a compelling drama. But really, it’s one of the best films of 2007. Although at first it seems to be nothing more than a good “CSI” episode, it becomes a thoughtful, in-depth and fascinating look at our situation in the Middle East while at the same time delivering on the goods with an edge-of-your-seat, pulse-pounding final thirty minutes. For these reasons, Peter Berg has announced himself as a strong contender for best director at this year’s Academy Awards.

Our storyline follows after a horrific terrorists incident in a western housing complex in Saudi Arabia. A group of Saudis disguised as military officers exploded a bomb that killed over 100 Americans and wounded 200 more. This is the first scene in The Kingdom and while well-crafted, it is blatant and shocking to watch.

Next we cut to our main character, FBI Special Agent Ronald Fluery (Jamie Foxx, Dreamgirls), who is interrupted with the news of the incident while visiting his son at school. While he demands that the FBI send in an evidence response team, the government feels that sending in a team would escalate the situation even further and would put those agents at risk to be a target. However, he is able to pull some strings and is granted five days in Saudi Arabia by the Saudi Arabain ambassador. If there is one problem with The Kingdom it’s the inability to comprehend the setup, at least for myself. Exactly how Fluery was able to get that permission wasn’t clear to me. But never mind that. As I said it doesn’t start out as a great film, but it develops into one.

Flurry selects three agents to be members of his team: Grant Sykes (Chris Cooper, Breach), Janet Mayes (Jennifer Garner, Catch and Release) and Adam Leavitt (Jason Bateman, Smokin’ Aces). When they arrive they are basically babysat by a colonel Al-Ghazi (Ashraf Barhom) of the Saudi military and kept out of the loop. Things change when they are granted the access they need and soon put the pieces together as to what terrorists cell planned the attacks.

The Kingdom works on several different levels. It works as an investigation drama, as a thriller, and as a study of two cultures. This truly is an outstanding effort from actor turned director Peter Berg and this is by far his best work so far, following up two middle-of-the-road films in Friday Night Lights and The Rundown. In my opinion, he’s this year’s Paul Greengrass.

I love how everything in the film is so exquisitely detailed and how Berg shows the whole picture and both sides of the conflict. Right from the beginning, he explains our history with Saudi Arabia during the opening credits. Berg shows our reactions and then shows not only how these terrorist plan these attacks but he also makes Al-Ghazi an important supporting character by showing us his life. He doesn’t believe in killing infidels, he has a family and just wants to protect them. There’s a great scene showing him with his family and it is here that you realize how much Berg cares about the humanity in all of this.

Going further into detail, Berg captures the process of an investigation to a tragedy such as this bombing. Grant Sykes is a bomb expert and investigates the blast zone, and forensic specialist Janet Mayes gathers the clues to advance the story.

Structurally, the screenplay by Matthew Michael Carnahan is wonderful. I was impressed with how he let all these elements build up before the action. Then Carnahan inserts a brilliant plot twist and spins the story into Act III, creating one of the most exciting finales of the year. The last half hour of this movie is unforgettable. This is really where all the action takes place, aside from the beginning. It all begins with a stunning car crash scene on a freeway, which is as impressive as anything you’ll see in a summer blockbuster.

Few actors are on as much of a roll as Jamie Foxx, whose recent films dating back to three years ago include Collateral, Ray, Jarhead, Miami Vice, and Dreamgirls. As agent Fluery, he scores again. His character definitely gets the majority of attention and unfortunately his fellow colleagues aren’t as multi-layered. The screenplay just isn’t focused on them enough, but the performances by Cooper, Garner, and Bateman are good enough for this to be a minor quibble. Garner seems to be making better role choices with this picture and the upcoming TIFF acclaimed Juno. Cooper is good, but he’ll probably be more recognized by the end of the year for his performance in Breach. Bateman seems to be an actor on the rise as this is the first of three films to be released this fall with him in the cast. He co-stars with Garner in Juno and will also co-star with Natalie Portman in Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium.

Director Michael Mann (Miami Vice) serves as a producer for Berg and I thought that The Kingdom felt like a Michael Mann film. The cinematography by Mauro Fiore is gorgeous when it needs to be but also rough when it needs to be. The film displays one of the best jobs of editing you’ll see all year by Colby Parker Jr. and Kevin Stitt. A terrific job by production designer Tom Duffield to get the details and aftermath of a catastrophe correct. Last but not least is praise to sound designer Yann Delpuech. All of these categories have potential Oscar potential.

Overall, I was blown away with how The Kingdom ascended from middle-of-the-road to greatness. The very last scene is great stuff and it contains one powerful line that pretty much sums up the perspective the film is trying to give the audience. This is a landmark achievement in depicting not only how violent this world is and how awful these situations are, but also depicting the differences between our cultures, not to mention the fact that it has all the elements to make for a damn good time at the movies.

Read more articles by Nathan Deen