The Kingdom

[rating:3]
Director: Peter Berg
Starring: Jamie Foxx, Jennifer Garner, Chris Cooper, Jason Bateman

Have you ever seen a cop story where you have the cop who just wants to get the job done, no matter what it takes, paired up with the other cop who’s more by-the-book, unwilling to bend the rules? They keep crashing into The System, also known as The Man, whose stupid rules and muddled morality get in the way of solving the crime? But the cops from both worlds like totally bond, and Det. Stick-in-the-mud gets with the program? You have seen that? A lot? But have you seen it in Saudi Arabia, with the case being a terror blast that dramatically hollows out an area the size of a football field and does Oklahoma federal building damage to surrounding structures?

I didn’t think so. That’s why we have The Kingdom.

Okay, so, “The Kingdom” is Saudi Arabia, and the film involves a deadly and ingenious terror attack on a U.S. base in Riyadh (I can’t have been the only one in the audience wondering how long until this plot is acted out in real life). A team of FBI investigators manages to get permission to review the crime scene (through a clever ruse that’s almost believable), and with a five-day time limit, must struggle against the constraints of their Saudi minders to solve the crime whose victims included their own colleagues.

The film is solidly acted, especially by Foxx and his Saudi counterpart, played by Ashraf Barhom. The writing and directing are tight and fast-paced, and the film feels authoritative, like you’re getting an expert look at this sun-scorched world. Director Peter Berg layers a lot of compelling distraction to distract from its standard core plot. I liked how it immersed me in this tense alien world of political intrigue and social unrest. But can we be done with the “shaky cam makes it real” trend, now? The Kingdom is the first movie I’ve seen that actually nauseated me through overuse of the shaky in-the-moment style that will eventually date the movies from this decade. It wasn’t like being there in the war zone. It was like being in a blender.

Best thing: Lack of preachiness. The film does not try to be relevant. It does not want us to learn very much. It just wants to catch bad guys. Sure, we see that both Foxx and his rulebound Saudi counterpart are honest, family men, but that’s shown rather than hammered into us. So we see there are good men on both sides. There is a nice little twist to remind us that there are also monsters on both sides, or that the monster can be in any of us, and that’s a less saccharine comment, and though delivered at a key moment, it is done with some subtlety and elegance. And it’s a message that doesn’t conflict with the movie’s overall goal, which is to hunt down terrorists in an orgy of heart-pounding violence. Kinda would suck if the coda to that was, “We should remember we’re all God’s children,” y’know?

This is a straight-up cop procedural in an exciting setting, and on that level, it fares pretty well. Foxx’s team of investigators is likable, though not fleshed out. Jennifer Garner is tough, beautiful and pouty exactly the way Alias fans like to see, and Chris Cooper is fun as a grizzled veteran who loves him a forensics project. I sort of sighed heavily that Jason Bateman’s part as the smart-ass, neurotic, techie member of the team, the most intellectual and least “manly,” was also the Jewish guy. Way to battle stereotyping, gang.

If you let yourself glide along in this movie (and you’ve taken your Dramamine), you’ll enjoy it. The parts where not much is happening happen in a strange and foreboding locale (unless you’re, like, familiar with the Middle East, I guess), so they hold your attention. You might not notice the shopworn plot hooks and shoddy character development—let’s face it, most thrillers have to sacrifice complexity to fit in enough action and suspense sequences. If you like bubblegum, this stuff chews nicely.

Tags: drama, war