Picture this: families barbecuing, playing softball together and laughing among themselves. A typical, all-American sight. The only difference is that it is all taking place in Saudi Arabia.
Within minutes, gunfire occurs, Saudi military guards are shot down and a suicide bomber dressed in a Saudi uniform presses his detonator, killing nearly all of those around him, including women and children.
Through this opening scene in The Kingdom, the viewer is immediately sucked into the story, watching some of our greatest fears realized on film. As agents and officials scurry to assess the situation, a second bomb goes off, killing an American agent.
What follows is essentially a revenge piece that takes place in the backyard of an American pseudo-ally in Saudi Arabia. Four rogue FBI operatives fly to the country to find the terrorist responsible.
The group's leader, Ronald Fleury (Jaime Foxx, Dreamgirls) is an all-business badass, something between Jason Bourne and Rico Tubbs. Lightening up the mood are Sykes (Chris Cooper, Breach) and Leavitt (Jason Bateman, The Ex), while Jennifer Garner's (Catch and Release) Janet Mayes is as somber as ever, tears swelling in her eyes almost every time the camera pans her way.
The film's plot is thinner than sliced bread. This is a murder mystery, told using smarty-pants dialogue and shot using a never-steady digital camera that succeeds in making the whole thing feel more real than it should.
However, there's no denying the effectiveness of the simple story, largely surpassing recent politically fueled films Rendition and In the Valley of Elah. Both of those films bend over backwards attempting to please everyone watching, criticizing to the point at which Hollywood decides enough is enough, sanitizing the picture with uneasy sentimentality.
While The Kingdom doesn't reach nearly as far as its competitors, it strives, essentially, to illustrate the brutal confusion of the world today. US-Saudi allies disrespect America, a simple murder case is derailed by pure politics and no question can be answered with any one coherent thought, but rather proposals and suggestions.
That being said, The Kingdom is certainly not perfect. While the acting is solid, all of it is stock material pulled out of characters each actor has already played, save Bateman, who impresses with a part that is both a comic relief and emotionally grabbing.
The screenplay, written by Matthew Michael Carnahan (Lions for Lambs), clearly is unsure of itself, wanting in one scene to be a political film and in another to be just an off the wall, well-choreographed action flick. Viewers will easily see this rift in the film, occurring between the film's beginning and end.
As the team assembles, loading guns and strapping on vests, politicians Grace (Richard Jenkins, The Visitor) and Young (Danny Huston, 30 Days of Night) verbally duke it out the most impressive, most intelligent scene in the film.
What follows from this is a lot less thinking and a lot more doing. By film's end, the four American heroes are fighting the good fight against the bad men from that deadly, hellish Arab land. Director Peter Berg (Friday Night Lights) decides to grant viewers the greatest, most vengeful wish, after showing moviegoers earlier in the film what they fear the most. The camera shakes as bullets pierce through SUVs and hardened walls.
In short, this is a political film at it's most basic. What starts as something deeper and investigative becomes Miami Vice: Saudi Arabia.
And while the film may not breach any new ground and restate the previously declared, its action and gusto will get people to the theaters.
By the film's final, surprisingly poignant line, viewers who will never rent a political documentary or watch a "boring" statement film will be shown what their wildest, Arab-killing dreams look like. They'll see it thrown back in their faces, and be forced to think about what's going on and how they feel about it.
Photo: Courtesy of Laron Fomby
