The Kingdom -- Review

Director: Peter Berg
Writer: Matthew Michael Carnahan
Starring: Jamie Foxx/Jennifer Garner
Runtime: 110 minutes

The Kingdom is a movie that has one big surpise, and it's a good one: it doesn't allow itself to deteriorate into a political diatribe.

That's hard to come by in a movie about terrorism in Saudi Arabia. These days, the 'no blood for oil' crowd have a hissy fit if you don't mention the political repercussions of gassing up at the local Chevron.

In The Kingdom, a group of terrorists enter an American compound in Riyadh. We learn that that inside the walls of this compound, foreigners are allowed to live like foreigners. In the opening scenes of the film, we watch as happy families enjoy a sunny day playing softball.

Then all hell breaks loose. Two gunmen shoot up the compound. A suicide bomber, disguised as a policeman, shepherds the crowd towards him with shouts of "This way!" Then he proclaims his sub-titled love to Allah, and blows himself and the families to smithereens.

Later, as rescue crews clean up the mess and help the wounded, another explosion goes off, killing dozens more. It's an old trick that the IRA used to practice, and it is something that the Israelis constantly fear: that the first bomb is simply meant to draw people to the scene. It's the next bomb that does the real damage.

In this film, the FBI cuts through some red tape and sends a team of investigators to Riyadh. They are headed up by Jamie Foxx. There is the usual "can we cooperate" stuff, and then Foxx and his team begin to search for the killers in earnest.

One thing I liked about The Kingdom is it's total lack of propaganda. There's no obligatory dialogue scenes of which side is right, which side is wrong. The Saudi characters don't accuse Westerners of worshiping gas guzzling SUVs, and the Westerners don't accuse the Saudis of being backward morons. The police from West and Middle East are professionals, looking for a terrorist, period.

That probably isn't far from the truth. The Saudis fear terrorism as much as the West, and for good reason. Osama bin Laden has said many times that he'd love to tear down the Saudi royal family. So while there may be many people in Saudi Arabia sympathetic to bin Laden's cause, the royal family certainly isn't. In this film, the royal prince wants the terrorists caught not for religious or political reasons, but because he likes things the way they are. If the US Feds can help destroy this terrorist cell for him, so much the better.

The film is very good at subtlety. It expects you to be educated about political events and religious context. It doesn't preach. In one scene, Jason Bateman casually asks, "I have an Israeli stamp in my passport. Is that going to be a problem?" The Saudi officer, played by a very good Ashraf Barhom, replies that it isn't his concern, and the subject is dropped.

That's good writing, because an Israeli stamp in your passport can be of grave concern to Middle Eastern officials. My aunt, who is American, went on a working tour of the Middle East. In Saudi Arabia, she had a massive hassle at the airport because she did indeed have an Israeli stamp in her passport. She was eventually asked if she was a Jew or a Christian. She answered that it didn't matter, but she was a Christian. Suddenly they were ten times more helpful. What does that tell you?

Another scene involves Jennifer Garner. She's inspecting the corpse of a dead Muslim. As she is about to take his fingerprints, an anxious solider shouts in protest. Another English-speaking cop explains that she cannot touch a Muslim. Garner says fine, I'll tell you how to do it.

Another example involves Garner covering up her flesh. She's wearing a tank top when the prince comes to pay a visit. Jeremy Piven, as the wise-cracking US attache, gives her a cloak and tells her to cover up the "boobies" a bit. She does.

The reason I like those scenes is this: they don't shove political and religious talk in your face. Bateman's scene doesn't turn into a dissertation on why Jews are treated differently in Saudi Arabia. Garner's scenes don't become a chance to spout off about the way Muslims treat women and non-Muslims. When she puts on her cloak to cover her flesh, there's no close-up on her face to show her repugnance. Sure, there is a place for that kind of dialogue and directing, but not in a movie such as this, because these are professional people doing a job. If you were flown to Saudi Arabia and told, "You can't take that man's fingerprints," what would you do? Shout and scream about inequality, or turn to your Muslim neighbour and say, "Fine. You do it."

The director, Peter Berg, keeps the film moving. Though there isn't a ton of action throughout, the film doesn't feel slow. Information is slowly parsed out, bit by bit, clue by clue. The finale is action packed, and relatively believable for the genre. The editing is crisp.

The cast is quite good. Jamie Foxx is excellent, and Chris Cooper is Chris Cooper - enough said. Jason Bateman was obviously cast to be the class clown. He does a good job, but it's too bad it is so obvious. Jennifer Garner's character suffers a little from the subtlety of the script: she has no yelling to do. Then again, how refreshing is that? A female character that's succeeding in a man's world, knows it, and gets on with her job as an equal.

The story stays true to itself. Islamic terrorists hate Westerners and think they all should die. The terrorists in the film play it that way, and there are no, "Let me explain why I'm blowing you up," scenes. Equally, Westerners and Saudi officials want to catch and kill terrorists, and that is the way those characters are played.

I think this movie was ultimately made to entertain more than it was made to educate. It will suffer from critics because of that. Critics will rate every anti-Western film with five stars because they feel that political jargon in a script is "brave." I disagree.

The Kingdom didn't shove things don't my throat, and I still learned from it while being able to enjoy the film. I think writer Mathew Carnahan was extremely brave for not going with every knee-jerk cliche on the subject of terrorism, the West, oil, so forth. He told a good story because of it, and producer Michael Mann didn't rein him in. Believe it or not, the story makers actually had the guts to show the terrorists wanting to cut off someone's head for the video cameras. Terrorists have been doing it for years, but nobody wants to brush up against the idea that these people are truly evil. The Kingdom does.

I'm glad the film was made the way it was, and I was pleasantly surprised, too.