Rating: C+
Dir: Bobby Boermans.
Star: Tarikh Janssen, Gijs Blom, Ortál Vriend, Gijs Scholten van Aschat.
a.k.a. Invasie.
You know about the British Empire, and perhaps even the empires belonging to France and Spain. But the Dutch did their share of colonizing as well, and still cling on to fragments, the same way we Brits have Gibraltar and the Falklands. I know about this, mostly because of the Dutch baseball team, which comes largely from the Caribbean. These islands – Aruba, Bonaire, and Curaçao – form part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. This is important here, because otherwise, you may be wondering why Holland gives a damn about one teeny banana republic invading another teeny banana republic.
In this case, it’s the fictional country of Veragua – I think you can get an ointment for that – which has launched an assault on the “ABC Islands” because its president needs a distraction. There are a few different plot threads thereafter. The one which gets most time involves three young wannabe Marines, including the first female Marine (Vriend) because we must be diverse. They are trying to extract the Dutch ambassador, Caan (van Aschat) who is a bit of a… van Aschat, and bring him to safety. Though the resolution requires help for the Dutch from the United States. An interesting choice, especially watching it the week Trump threatened to end Iran. Should just have dropped a nuke on Veragua. Which is not at all Venezuela.
Interesting to note the military here don’t get much support from the government back in The Hague. The politicians say unhelpful things like, “There is a diplomatic solution, and we will find it.” The armed forces want to play with their toys. This is an action film, made with the co-operation of the military. Guess which side wins that argument. But it does feel rushed, with an unsatisfying finish. It’s better in the early going, when Boermans does a good job of keeping the various threads separate, and moving forward. It’s less effective when the bullets stop flying, and the generally uninteresting trio of characters have to keep the viewer’s attention. Andy (Janssen) has a fear of heights. That is about the extent of the characterization you can expect here.
Consequently, there is a strong law of diminishing returns at work here. Military nerds will appreciate the hardware on view, and the director knows his way around a gun-battle. It only runs ninety minutes, and that may be why the ending feels rushed, and is explained, rather than shown. Some threads are simply abandoned, and the film would have benefited from another twenty or so minutes, to provide a better sense of closure. However, I’m hard-pushed to think of many Dutch action films. While this certainly has its weaknesses, they are not glaring enough to overcome the technical competence present. I wonder if any other countries have “stub empires” which could be used similarly?
This is part of our World in Action feature, covering action movies around the globe.