Green Zone Review
By Karen Dahlstrom
Goin' Rogue
Matt Damon re-teams with his "Bourne" director, Paul Greengrass, in "Green Zone" - a political thriller set against the aftermath of the 2003 U.S. bombing of Baghdad. Damon plays army Chief Roy Miller, the no-nonsense leader of a squad sent to hunt down Saddam's Weapons of Mass Destruction. Acting on intel from an unknown Iraqi source, Miller's team hits site after site, always coming up empty-handed. As Miller begins to question his superiors and the intelligence reports, he finds himself "off the reservation" and caught between the CIA, the White House, the military and the Iraqi people he's trying to protect.
After three installments of the "Bourne" series, Matt Damon has more than proven himself as an action star. We've become used to watching him effortlessly outrun, outwit and outthrottle his pursuers with near superhuman ability. In "Green Zone", Damon creates a more complicated, more mortal character in Miller. With a husky voice and a gruff demeanor, Miller is a decisive, commanding leader with a single-minded devotion to his assignment. Through his relationship with Freddy (Khalid Abdalla), an Iraqi informer, Miller begins to realize the true impact that his government has made on the citizens of Baghdad and question what he's truly fighting for. Those expecting Jason Bourne will be surprised to find that Damon brings a maturity and nuance to the character of Miller that makes up a bit for the lack of hand-to-hand combat. That, and the man can wear the hell out of fatigues and a flak jacket.
Director Paul Greengrass ("
The Bourne Supremacy", "
The Bourne Ultimatum", "
United 93") heavily utilizes hand-held camera to capture the chaos of Baghdad, from the bombing to the chase scenes through the narrow streets and alleyways of the city. Greengrass is no stranger to tense action scenes (see credits), and he does an admirable job keeping the hand-held camera-induced queasiness to a minimum, while keeping up the suspense. Greengrass, with cinematographer Barry Ackroyd (who also shot the Oscar-winning "The Hurt Locker"), uses a grainy texture to give the film a gritty, realistic feel ― almost like a pixelated, live TV feed.
Unfortunately, the grittiness of the image is the only thing that feels realistic in "Green Zone". Though based on real events and inspired by Rajiv Chandrasekaran's exposé, "Imperial Life in the Emerald City: Inside Iraq's Green Zone", the plot, Miller, and all the characters involved are fictional. Screenwriter Brian Helgeland ("L.A. Confidential") introduces one-dimensional supporting characters that represent various groups involved in the conflict. There's the CIA middle east expert that the government ignores (Brendan Gleeson), the ambitious reporter more interested in making a name for herself than checking facts (Amy Ryan), the brutal special forces interrogator (Jason Isaacs), the smarmy White House advisor engineering a coup (Greg Kinnear) and the Iraqi who just wants to rid his country of tyranny (Abdalla). The talented cast does their best to flesh out these roles and play against Damon, but they all come off as plot devices rather than real people.
Plot-wise, Helgeland constructs a rather paint-by-numbers political thriller that would have been much less interesting with a less able cast or a less timely setting. Seven years after the fall of Baghdad, we already know that there were no WMDs, that the CIA and the White House were working against one another, and that dismantling the Iraqi army was a catastrophic decision. So, watching a fictional character try and piece the puzzle together (rather than dramatizing the real events) seems anti-climactic at best, and a waste of time at worst. Even when Miller confronts the government weasels in charge for their misdoings, there's no catharsis, no sense of justice done. After all, we're still cleaning up the mess.
"Green Zone" is serviceable as political action-thrillers go, but there seems little point. We already know the big reveal ― all too well. This isn't a "All The President's Men"-style procedural about unraveling the WMD cover-up. Frankly, it would be more compelling if it had.
