Had
Green Zone been released earlier this century when the world was still
in the throes of Bushism, it might have been considered brave stuff;
taking place in the earliest days of the Iraq War when regardless of
factual evidence, much of the public and even those brave soldiers
involved believed in the fabricated reasons that justified sending US
troops to war in Iraq and Afghanistan. Would that this film had hit
screens before the arrival of new era and sparkly new president, this
drama around the discovery of the government’s great lie might have
created far more thrills than the tepid, warmed-over chases and wartime
action seen here.
Chief
Miller is fed up. After three arduous and life-threatening assignments,
his missions have turned up none of the weapons of mass destruction that
are the whole basis for his troops’ dangerous tours in the desert. When
Miller asks the obvious questions about the intelligence that is sending
his men on these wild goose chases, he is shut down by higher command
with some ominous insinuations. Miller’s refusal to accept the repeated
bad intel that keeps putting his company’s lives in peril brings him to
the notice of a disgusted CIA agent, who knows far more than the good
soldier is being told. It’s this agent that begins Miller on another
mission to find out the real reason he and his men are risking their
lives in Iraq and why certain other factions of the government will do
anything to keep him from finding out.
Utilising the shaky-cam style that has become his signature and has been
co-opted by more modern directors than there is Dramamine, Paul
Greengrass, helmer of the popular Bourne Identity {2004} and
Bourne Ultimatum {2007}, goes over the top - even for him - with
the nausea-causing cinematography. Hand-to-hand combat shots are
completely indiscernible and chase scenes lose any intensity they
might’ve had. The compelling thing about the handheld camera use here
is that it seems so throwaway and token, as if Greengrass knew the
audience would expect it and so here it is, utterly uninspired, much
like the rest of the film. There is so little ingenuity in Green Zone
that between the dull-witted timing and the completely lackluster action
and performances it’s impossible to figure why Greengrass bothered at
all. Everything about this film feels like Greengrass and the assembled
cast is treading water, perhaps until the next Jason Bourne film is
conceived or another such goldmine comes along. This is particularly
surprising as the screenplay is written by the occasionally brilliant
Brian Helgeland {L.A. Confidential (1997), Mystic River (2002), A
Knights Tale (! - 2001)}. Perhaps it’s an exercise to keep their
hands in, but whatever the cause this film feels half-baked and lazy.
There aren’t even enough stunning moments for me to recommend this as a
mindless popcorn actioner and its ham-fisted politics are indeed
mindless. It certainly doesn’t take a poly-sci major to figure that
much of this script is lifted directly from the real-life events that
revealed that the military was indeed on the world’s deadliest bug hunt;
the WMD’s so often claimed as the basis for our invasion of Iraq had
never existed there. Judith Miller, the infamous New York Times
journalist whose articles backed up the Bush government’s claim to the
contrary and allowed the public to believe there was some legitimate
reason for US involvement, is present here in the very name of our
protagonist and in a clumsily inserted female reporter whose presence is
pointless other than to further prove what a lying snake her Pentagon
contact is. The fact that Greg Kinnear was playing him should have been
enough.
Matt
Damon who uses monotone intensity with great success as Jason Bourne,
isn’t so lucky here. In the film’s first scenes, we are meant to
believe Miller is a soldier so revered by his men they would go rogue
alongside him, yet there’s nothing in Damon’s manner to give us that
impression. It’s hard to blame him because Miller is written with all
the depth of a sheet of typing paper and plods along with no emotion or
nuance. Brendan Gleeson, using an unlocatable American accent, could
have played the skeptical CIA agent in his sleep and appears to be doing
just that. The only ones who look like they’re even trying are Khalid
Abdalla as an Iraqi citizen who becomes Miller’s reluctant informant/Gunga
Din/symbol for the poor, suffering Iraqis, and Jason Isaacs as the
pragmatic Special Forces commander who answers only to the Pentagon even
if it means putting one behind the ear his fellow soldiers. Besides a
couple of picturesque views of the desert and one flaming helicopter
shot out of the sky, there nothing to recommend this film visually,
expect maybe for Isaacs in a full leatherman mustache that would make
Hulk Hogan jealous employing some homoerotic full-contact search
techniques on Matt Damon. Yeah, this is what I was reduced to, it was
that dull. There were plot holes so huge and patently silly that they
brought forth actual laughter from the audience and everything here is
written in such an indolent shorthand that even for folks who were
against US involvement in Iraq the Bush lied/the government is eeevil
message gets tiresome. It’s that laziness that Green Zone suffers most
from and the result is an unfortunate missed opportunity for Damon,
Greengrass and all involved.
~ The
Lady Miz Diva
March
12th, 2010
© 2006-2022 The Diva Review.com |