Rating: B
Dir: Kathryn Bigelow
Star: Rebecca Ferguson, Gabriel Basso, Jared Harris, Tracy Letts
Let me start by getting one thing out of the way. Do not go into this expecting a tidy resolution, because you will be disappointed. Bigelow is clearly much more interested in the journey than the destination. To the point that we go through said journey, three separate times, from overlapping perspectives. Personally, it feels like the law of diminishing returns inevitably applied. Not disastrously so. But from a first pass which was utterly gripping, by the time we were going through a third iteration, my reaction was closer to moderate interest. In some ways, it feels like a reverse version of Run Lola Run. Except here, there’s only one chance to get it right.
“It” in this case being the response of the United States to the launch of a nuclear missile from the Pacific Ocean. Its national origin is unknown, the motive is unknown, and attempts to take it down prove ineffective. The government has less than twenty minutes to formulate a response, before… Well, let’s just say, the next Chicago Cubs championship drought will last a lot longer than the previous one. So, we see the events leading up to the missile’s arrival over Wrigley Field from various levels of the administration, up to that of the President. He’s played by Idris Elba, who appears to be collecting the set of national leaders, having portrayed the British Prime Minister in Heads of State – opposite John Cena’s US President.
This takes matters considerably more seriously, needless to say. Though I was amused to note how many foreigners are running the American government, including Harris as Secretary of Defense Reid Baker, and Ferguson as Captain Olivia Walker, oversight officer for the White House Situation Room. Much as in the similar Fail Safe, hawks and doves battle over how to respond. Would waiting to ascertain the identity of the attacker, potentially signal weakness and open a window for opportunistic attack? General Anthony Brady (Letts) favours a robust response, while Deputy National Security Advisor Jake Baerington (Basso) – thrown in at the deep end because his boss is zonked out on propofol – tries to de-escalate matters.
It’s all concerningly plausible, with the main theme being how plans are all very well, until something unplanned for happens. Then you’re left, basically, to make shit up as you go along, and try to figure things out. However, as noted, I didn’t feel it was strengthened by revisiting it. While the various perspectives did bring new bits and pieces, and the performances across the board are very good, it wasn’t enough to overcome the sense of literal deja vu. There may be a few too many shots of people gazing at snapshots of family members (or unborn foetuses) too. However, it generally feels like an impressively “hard thriller”, in the same sense some films are “hard SF”. Although I did keep expecting the President to point at an aide while yelling, “Get me CTU and Jack Bauer!”