THE KINGDOM - film review

The Kingdom - film review

BEWARE of statements like "You've never seen anything like it." Because of course you have. With the preponderance of a twenty-four hour news cycle and the internet, there's not much any of us miss. But that said: The Kingdom, a film about three determined FBI agents working to identify and prosecute a terrorist cell inside Saudi Arabia, is going to shake you to your core. I'm going to oversell this film, so please take that into consideration—it may not be for you at all. But I loved it. It took me to places I haven't been in film in a long time: to the core of my soul, trembling like a child.

I've written for film, and television, so I tend to both watch and study what I see. I break it apart into acts. I actually visualize the dialogue as written text as it's being spoken. It's a curse and a blessing. A blessing because I hope it makes me a better writer. A curse because I seldom get so carried away by a film that I'm not in this study phase.

Until The Kingdom. My comment to my wife on the way out of the theater: "I think I held my breath for the last twenty minutes. I don't remember breathing." At the twenty minute mark, nearing the end of the all important first act (of three) my wife leaned over and whispered, "I don't know if I can take this. It's so real." What she meant is it's so "right now." At first you're not sure if you're watching a film or CNN.

The movie opens with a snapshot history of Saudi Arabia's role in the Middle East that is so well laid out I would recommend the film for this alone. Your jaw drops as the narrator walks you through what you already know, or have heard a dozen times. But seeing it all strung together into a collage of missteps, a concise history of the West's bungling, is painful to your chest. Your eyes well. I think this may be where you stop breathing—with only two hours to go.

Jamie Foxx's participation concerned me when I saw the trailer, months ago. Didn't he just do Jarhead? Haven't we seen enough of Jamie in the desert? Nope. Nowhere near enough, as it turns out. The story isn't what I thought it might be given the trailer. It turns out it's an emotionally-charged, adrenaline laden, electrical shock treatment disguised as motion picture. Foxx's performance will put him on the same list as Brad Pitt come February. And Jennifer Garner! Who knew? I was such an Alias fan (on DVD, first season especially), and I reeled with Catch And Release and feared she was succumbing to big dollars for small films, the way many TV actors seem to go. But not Jen! She stands up in this movie, rid of all cliché, despite dialogue and situations that could reek of it, and lathers the screen with a deep remorse for things past, and a devil-may-care bare-it-all attitude toward the future.

But it is also the filmmaking that wows you. This film is as contemporary as Jesse James is antiquated. That they both work, and can go head to head in the same season speaks of Hollywood's diversity and artistic prowess. We are getting treated to directors who know their crafts and studios willing to let them do their best work. It's a great time to be a movie go-er, and if The Kingdom isn't at the top of your list this fall, then you're the poorer for it: You've never seen anything like it.