“The Kingdom” introduces itself to the audience by providing them with a short, highly stylized history of the United States’ close relationship with Saudi Arabia (hint: it’s all about oil). Unlike “Syriana,” “Kingdom” wants audiences to know its context before plumbing into its procedural-cum-action flick about a terrorist attack on a US oil company compound in Saudi Arabia.
Jamie Foxx plays Robert Fleury, an FBI agent trying to put together a team (consisting of actors Jason Bateman, Chris Cooper and Jennifer Garner) to send into Saudi Arabia. Fleury has to cut through the political red tape in order to get into the country in the first place: The United States doesn’t want to complicate its tenuous relationship with Saudi Arabia, and Saudi Arabia isn’t keen on having foreign investigators in its domain. Fleury is joined by Colonel Al-Ghazi (Ashraf Barhom), a soldier for the Saudi army who babysits the team by telling them what they can and cannot do on foreign soil. Al-Ghazi and Fleury are at odds with each other at first but eventually come together in their pursuit of the terrorist cell responsible for the attack on the compound.
Director Peter Berg (“The Rundown,” “Friday Night Lights”) invites the shoot-em-up familiarities of Hollywood into his film while juggling with a well-intended commentary on the nature of the relationship between the two cultures. Mr. Berg is always in control of his audience, keeping them enthralled from frame one. The action sequences that bookend the film are brutal and intense but never approach over-the-top. Unsurprisingly, the direction is akin to that of Michael Mann (serving as one of the film’s producers here), whose own films exhibit the same type of tight editing and tone that Berg channels here.
The characters in the movie could be considered underdeveloped and one-note, but Berg fills this gap with a capable cast. Foxx is as dynamic as ever, playing Fleury as both a good-natured father and a hardened agent willing to subvert the rules to get his criminal. Former “Arrested Development” star Jason Bateman almost seems out of place as an FBI agent given that he’s relegated to a comedic role during the first half of the movie. But once the threat becomes real, he snaps back into reality and deals with the trauma as best as he can. Chris Cooper is always a pleasure to watch on-screen, and his character’s Southern wisdom plays out believably next to his gung-ho attitude about the investigation. Jennifer Garner delivers a quiet sensibility to her character while also channeling memories of Sydney Bristow on “Alias” during the final act of the movie.
The movie, however, belongs to Ashraf Barhom. Al-Ghazi is a man divided by his duty to his nation and his willingness to help the Americans bring a criminal to justice. Barhom gives Al-Ghazi complexity that would otherwise be one-sided in any other movie. “When we catch the man who murdered these people,” says Al-Ghazi to Fleury in one scene, “I don’t care to ask even ask one question. Do you understand?” Al-Ghazi goes beyond the simple “Good Arab” archetype thanks to Barhom’s resolute nature.
While “The Kingdom” excels at its thoroughly engrossing plot and simple characters, I still can’t help but feel that it simply scratches the surface of its main theme. “The Kingdom” largely remains a strictly Hollywood affair, albeit one that feels more intelligent and layered than most action productions. Matthew Michael Carnahan’s script is certainly nuanced in how it deals with the United States/Middle East culture clash. Fleury’s victory is merely bittersweet in the end. The all-too-tidy conclusion suggests that violence will defeat terrorism in the short term, but the long term effects of using that violence are cyclical and reciprocal.
John Anderson of Variety Magazine wrote in his review of “The Kingdom” that this film “doesn’t have the complexity of ‘Syriana.'” I’m glad that it isn’t trying to ape director Stephen Gaghan’s polemic about oil and the United States. Where “Syriana” succeeded in its intelligence, it fumbled when it came to reducing its characters to political talking points. Berg knows how to give his characters hearts in addition to their heads. “The Kingdom” turns out to be a movie that’s just as much about people realistically wrestling with duty and realization during turmoil as it is a movie about the delicate relationship between the United States and the Middle East.
