The Kingdom is a political thriller that slowly builds the tension throughout the movie and pays off at the end. The movie has some flaws, but manages to keep you interested thanks to an intriguing plot, good use of camera angles, and solid acting from an A-list cast.
Directed by Peter Berg (Friday Night Lights) and produced by Michael Mann (Miami Vice), The Kingdom stars Jamie Foxx, Chris Cooper, Jennifer Garner, Jason Bateman, Ashraf Barhom. There are also some decent supporting roles with Jeremy Piven, Danny Huston, Kyle Chandler, and Tim McGraw (who has an extremely powerful scene with Foxx).
The film features a screenplay by Matthew Michael Carnahan (Lions for Lambs and State of Play), music by the great Danny Elfman and cinematography by Mauro Fiore (which I mainly mention since I have heard some people had a problem with the film’s use of “shaky” camera angles).
At its core, The Kingdom is the story of an FBI investigation into a terrorist attack where several Americans were killed (including some FBI agents) in Saudi Arabia. Due to the political climate, the Saudi government is less than thrilled about inviting the FBI to investigate the crime, and promise to handle the matter internally.
While most of the FBI seem willing to accept this, special agent Ronald Fleury (Foxx) and his team - including forensics expert Janet Mayes (Garner), explosives expert Grant Sykes (Cooper), and intelligence analyst Adam Leavitt (Bateman) - blackmail their way into the country so they can join the investigation. Once there, the team slowly works their relationships with the Saudi government and starts piecing together the crime. It doesn’t take long for the team to discover the suspects, track them down, and get into a HUGE gunfight - which dominates the final few minutes of the film.
The Kingdom keeps the tension tight throughout the movie thanks to the performances of its cast. Foxx, Cooper, Bateman (who really surprised me in the film), and Barhom deliver standout performances. As the lead investigator, Foxx seems to take control of the ensemble and is the focal point of the film.
He is able to carry the role of a leader, and appears comfortable in the role of an FBI investigator. When the fire fight breaks out, Foxx takes command of the situation and shows he has the grit needed for the action. Barhom is also excellent in the film as a man wanting to serve his country and stop a crime. He has good chemistry with Foxx and helps bring the Saudi perspective to the story.
Garner manages to hold her own with the others despite seeming out of place from time to time. It is not so much that her performance is bad, but she just doesn’t seem to have as much room to develop her story. When the gunfight happens at the end, her character seems like an afterthought (she roams a hall for most of the fight). Again, it isn’t her fault, but a lack of character development on the writer’s part.
Janet Mayes comes across as a way to simply point out the differences between American women and Saudi women (such as when she is forbidden to meet with a prince, not allowed to touch a dead body because she is a woman, and the constant references for the need to cover up her breast in public). Thanks to "Alias," Garner has shown she can hang with the big boys during heavy action sequences, but isn’t given the chance here.
Berg manages to keep the story moving and the film on point. The plot could easily have become a heavy political commentary (which some viewers may feel it needed to be), but Berg chose to keep it grounded in more of a “thriller” genre.
The political aspects of the story are there, but Berg and company make the film more of a simple crime investigation which happens to have to cut through all this political red tape. I didn’t feel this hurt the film, and am thankful he decided to focus more on the crime than on making yet another political statement. The politics are there, but it is never so heavy handed that it takes away from the other aspects of the script.
I have read some people did not enjoy the “shaky” camera-look to the film, but it honestly didn’t bother me. From everything I had read, I was expecting it to be a lot worse, but barely noticed it. Fiore’s use of camera angles and lighting seem to marry the feel of a documentary with a Hollywood film. You never forget this is a movie not a documentary, but the film has a very realistic feeling.
The DVD comes with some decent special features including:
Deleted Scenes
Even with some faults, The Kingdom is an extremely good film with some good performances from its cast. The story slowly builds throughout the film and Berg makes sure that tension pays off in the end.
The Kingdom is now available at Amazon . It is available for pre-order at AmazonUK for a Jan. 28th release. Visit the DVD database for more information.
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