Review of Green Zone (2010) by Joe M — 11 Oct 2012

If you're a fan of the latter two Bourne films penchant for shaky cam, chances are you'll enjoy this offering from the combo of Matt Damon & Paul Greengrass - a rather unusual package given it's ostensibly quite a breathless conspiracy thriller wrapped inside a war movie, or more appropriately a war-aftermath movie. Iraq and the causes for the second conflict that rid us of Saddam Hussein is going to be a thorny issue for decades to come, perhaps even this entire century, and Green Zone is the first movie to call bullshit on the US party line on Saddam's weapons of mass destruction. It's perhaps not as subtle as it thinks it is but it certainly propels a political undercurrent with a thrilling, if by the end predictable narrative.

Luckily Matt Damon is as solid a presence as you can get as lead Roy Miller, the US Army officer who begins to unravel the US government's dark secret - like any soldier, Damon gets in, gets the job done, gets out and remains a likeable, if straight laced, everyman presence; Greg Kinnear is wonderfully oily as the US agent facilitating the plot, while the ever dependable Brendan Gleeson provides ample support as a strategic CIA agent; but perhaps Khalid Abdalla deserves the most praise as an Iraqi man drawn into events, the film's tether to the voice of his people. Only really Amy Ryan and Jason Isaacs are wasted in thin, underdeveloped roles, sadly. As for Greengrass, he directs with verve and brings war torn Baghdad to life superbly, building the narrative to a tense climax.

Yes it's perhaps all a bit OTT and, as I say, this whacks you over the head with the WMD BOLLOCKS MESSAGE but in terms of providing thrills with substance, this delivers.