This schizophrenic action film can't decide whether it wants to be a solemn lecture about American/Arabian cultural differences or an episode of "The A Team."
Director Peter Berg does an admirable job of maintaining an air of objectivity in this story about a group of American FBI agents who travel to Saudi Arabia to investigate the crime scene of a terrible terrorist attack against the wishes of both American and Saudi authorities. The Americans are portrayed as arrogant bullies, the Saudis as mysterious and uncooperative. The best part of the film are the tiny details thrown in here and there to highlight the cultural animosity -- a black robe thrown over Jennifer Garner's shoulders to hide the tight-fitting tank top she wears to do her forensics work; the Saudi chief of police misunderstanding the American slang Jamie Foxx's character sprinkles throughout his speech; the looks of disdain on the Americans' faces when an entire unit of Saudi police drop to the ground in prayer in the mid-day sun.
The investigation itself never becomes a point of interest in the story; I'm not sure whether this was intentional or not. The final third of the film devolves into a standard action film chase scene with all of the implausibility scenes like that carry with them, and the race to save a fellow FBI agent before a group of terrorists are able to videotape his beheading seems like a cheap and distasteful ploy to build suspense. The final message of the movie, meant to send us away pontificating, no doubt, is that what Americans and Arabs share most in common is a desire to kill one another.
The issues this movie tries to tackle are far too complicated for the lowest-common-denominator treatment they are given here.
Grade: B-
Director Peter Berg does an admirable job of maintaining an air of objectivity in this story about a group of American FBI agents who travel to Saudi Arabia to investigate the crime scene of a terrible terrorist attack against the wishes of both American and Saudi authorities. The Americans are portrayed as arrogant bullies, the Saudis as mysterious and uncooperative. The best part of the film are the tiny details thrown in here and there to highlight the cultural animosity -- a black robe thrown over Jennifer Garner's shoulders to hide the tight-fitting tank top she wears to do her forensics work; the Saudi chief of police misunderstanding the American slang Jamie Foxx's character sprinkles throughout his speech; the looks of disdain on the Americans' faces when an entire unit of Saudi police drop to the ground in prayer in the mid-day sun.
The investigation itself never becomes a point of interest in the story; I'm not sure whether this was intentional or not. The final third of the film devolves into a standard action film chase scene with all of the implausibility scenes like that carry with them, and the race to save a fellow FBI agent before a group of terrorists are able to videotape his beheading seems like a cheap and distasteful ploy to build suspense. The final message of the movie, meant to send us away pontificating, no doubt, is that what Americans and Arabs share most in common is a desire to kill one another.
The issues this movie tries to tackle are far too complicated for the lowest-common-denominator treatment they are given here.
Grade: B-