The Kingdom: Thrilling! review
Watch The Kingdom, for it's one of the few terror related thrillers that really thrills you, writes Vedavyasa Bhat
Five minutes into 'The Kingdom', I knew I was going to like this movie.
I was going to like it because it seemed to be extremely well researched, well made and well scripted. It reminded me of films like Syriana, Good Night and Good Luck and many other drama and thrillers that I just love watching.
Directed by Peter Berg (also an Actor) and written by Michael Carnhan, starring Jamie Foxx, Jennifer Garner, Chris Cooper, Jason Bateman and a host of wonderful actors such as Ashraf Barhoum (an Israeli but playing a Saudi here) and Ali Sulaiman, the movie is a tale of a hunt for a terrorist killer in a foreign land by a group of committed FBI agents who soon become the targets themselves. In a land which is strange to them, with its religious and social customs the group of FBI agents find an alley in the local Police Chief Colonel Faris Al ghazi and the loyal Sergeant Haytham.
The Kingdom being referred to is the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the tale starts off with an update on the historic events and then leads on to an immense act of terror on US citizens in the middle of Saudi Arabia, which triggers the FBI team's mission. A mission in hostile territory for they are the westerners seen as corrupting the holy lands.
The FBI team led by SPAC Ronald Fleury (Jamie Foxx) has to put aside their thirst for revenge and focus on the task at hand, which is to find the killers of the most horrific attack on Saudi soil on US citizens.
The movie is well directed and tightly scripted (like I said before) with quite a few entertaining dialogues, some excellent performances and does have a deeper meaning to it than made obvious . This meaning strikes you due to a dialogue at the end of the movie . A dialogue spoken by the FBI agent to his colleague when the bombing occurs and dialogue that is reverberated by the dying terrorist mastermind to his grandson at the end of the movie and that makes you think. What is the root cause of terror? Does terror beget terror? Jennifer Garner looks as good as she did in Alias but obviously the star of the movie is Jamie Foxx who puts in a controlled performance and receives excellent support from the other actors. Ashraf Barhoum actually steals the show as the Saudi Police chief torn between different dimensions of his life which includes inter-departmental politics, FBI agents and their noble purpose and his family.
Watch this movie, for its one of the few terror related thrillers in recent times that has managed to thirll!
[imdb]0431197[/imdb]
