| Overall Grade: |
B |
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| Story: |
A |
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| Acting: |
B |
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| Direction: |
C- |
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| Visuals: |
C+ |
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Which Kingdom?
by Wyllow (movies profile)
Jan 28, 2008
62
of
113 people found this review helpful
At first this film feels very anti-Muslim, anti-Middle East, until the paradoxical ending. The first violent act is perpetrated against families and children and the visuals are such that the camera emphasizes the effects of the bombing and violence on children (both American and Saudi). In fact, there are certain scenes that seem particularly directed at American parents (the grandfather forcing his young grandson to watch the bombing) in a blatant push for support for the Bush administration's imperial stance in the Middle East. However, by the time the film is over you are unsure what the difference is between each "kingdom" (America and Saudi) as both try to kill the other in the name of "righteousness" with children being the ones who ultimately suffer.
The visuals are great in some places, terrible in others. In one scene the editing is so frenetic as to be incomprehensible. The new digital style of erratic camera movement and schizophrenic jump cuts do nothing for the film experience and in fact, disrupt the narrative to such an extent that it is hard to follow the story. There is one shot where they are running up the stairs to confront a group and the camera swings to show the floor and you see the floor for a couple minutes as they run up.
This is not Jamie Foxx's best performance. I found him stiff and unappealing, lacking any kind of depth or sympathy. His supporting character's had more personality that he did. He seemed to be constantly "posing," putting his sunglasses on and taking them off at key moments in true FBI stereotype.
Overall, the film is good and asks some very hard questions about our role in the Middle East, about how we train our own children to hate under the guise of religion and about our own skewed perspective of other cultures. |
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