Film Reviews

The Kingdom

• Rating:
• Director: Peter Berg
• Starring: Chris Cooper
• Details: US / 110mins (15A).

"We're Americans - we're good at this." Cinema verite is very much 'in' at the moment: Stephen Gaghan (Syriana), Chris Gorak (Right At Your Door), Michael Winterbottom (A Mighty Heart) and Paul Greengrass (everything) are directors who have adapted this approach in their own way, and now Peter Berg has joined the clique. However, Berg's staunchly pro-American politics doesn't gel with the more-or-less balanced films of his predecessors. When a terrorist group blows up a Western housing compound in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, an FBI team under the command of Special Agent Ronald Fleury (Foxx) is hastily assembled and sent to the Middle East to assist the Saudis in the investigation. However, internal politics and protocol threaten to hamstring the team's attempts to track down those responsible. If you can imagine Team America: World Police minus the irony, you're somewhere in the region of The Kingdom. This is a shame because The Kingdom, despite Berg overcooking almost everything, while constantly reminding us that America is everyone's guardian angel, can be a nifty little action thriller when it wants to be. Embarrassing in the way it treats Arabs, the humour can be very condescending: language problems and translations of expressions (confusing 'catch the big dog' with 'catch the big fish') are front and centre. The performances are fine (with Foxx doing his best Denzel Washington impression) but it's Ashraf Barhoum as the Saudi interpreter/liaison that steals the show.

Review by Gavin Burke