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Tomorrow When The War Began

While the action fares slightly better than character development; this absorbing blockbuster deserves to be a hit.

Furry Vengeance

Full of clunky CGI and uninspired performances, this film is completely devoid of humour and heart.

Going The Distance

While occasionally opting for cheap laughs, this romantic comedy is entertaining, warm and feels surprisingly rooted in real life.

The Kids Are All Right

Driven by excellent performances, this entertaining film provides a fresh view of modern family life.

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Green Zone (Film)

by Brian Duff | March 08, 2010 15:16 | Edited March 08, 2010 15:18

Damon delivers a stirring performance in this thought-provoking film but it ultimately fails to distinguish itself from the recent influx of Middle East war films

This economical thriller from director Paul Greengrass centres on Matt Damon's Warrant Officer Roy Miller, a thoughtful, hardnosed commander of a unit searching Baghdad for weapons of mass destruction [WMD] in the lead up to the US military's "surge" there in 2007. Miller is the charismatic core of the film, and serves as a reliable counterweight to the militaristic fugue that has engulfed those further up the chain of command, including hawkish Pentagon official Clark Poundstone (an unctuous Greg Kinnear), tone deaf Major Briggs (Jason Isaacs) and, of course, President Bush, seen here in archival footage.

 

As Miller and his team roll through a charred and crumbling Baghdad, they find no evidence of WMD stockpiles, giving credence to mysterious CIA chief Brown (Brendan Gleeson pulling some kind of pan-Anglo accent), who believes that the US government doctored evidence about major weapons caches in Iraq.

 

Loosely based on Imperial Life In The Emerald City, a non-fiction bestseller from journalist Rajiv Chandrasekaran, it is a testament to the depth of distrust that audiences have for the real Bush administration that very little of the screenplay by Brian Helgeland (L.A. Confidential) reads as conspiracy hokum, although if filmed by a different director, it certainly might have. While Green Zone boasts special effects aplenty, Paul Greengrass' trademark grainy, handheld aesthetic helps ground the action in the deserted, labyrinthine streets of the decimated city.

 

Given Green Zone's pedigree as the film that Greengrass and Damon shot after The Bourne Ultimatum, it is difficult to divest Warrant Officer Miller of Jason Bourne's famous characteristics. This is especially true because, as a high-ranking, highly trained army officer, Miller possesses many Bourne-ish features, which is to say nothing of the film's trailer, which actively plays on the similarities between the films. This is no Bourne picture, however, as regardless of its sometimes-fantastical plot points, Green Zone is not about its action hero star, but rather about America's cynical, manipulative justifications for the Iraq War.

 

Despite Green Zone's myriad successes (and this is undoubtedly a well made, even important film, from an accomplished director), it doesn't do nearly enough to distinguish itself from the glut of Middle East conspiracy/war/action films that have been crowding the Hollywood docket lately. Moreover, rooting and tooting have become increasingly passé in recent years, with even the Hollywood tent poles (The Kingdom, Body Of Lies) arguably eschewing open slather xenophobia in favour of a critical view of American interference in West Asia.

 

That it is better than those films is no true recommendation, especially with the sundry weirdness of films like Jarhead, Three Kings or The Men Who Stare At Goats looming as alternative Middle East essays offering far deeper philosophical viewpoints, and the hit The Hurt Locker eating up its high-tension accolades. What Green Zone does offer, however, is yet another stirring performance from Damon, as well as solid support from Kinnear, Abdalla, Gleeson and Amy Ryan.