Review of The Secret Scripture (2017) by Foxgrove — 04 Feb 2016

Let’s be honest here if it wasn’t Michael Bay’s name attached as director this film would be far more appreciated than it is by critics. Personally I think it is his best film to date and even though he employs his customary machine gun style editing to proceedings, it is not out of place in such a chaotic milieu.

At times it is a claustrophobically tense and exciting war film that captures all the inherent horrors and atrocities of such a situation. The cinematography is outstandingly good and despite its hefty running time it does not outstay its welcome unlike quite a few other recent releases (The Revenant; Hateful Eight; Creed).

Leading man John Krasinski is solid and with a really good scene with which to flex his acting chops at the end. Compared to the recent Danish film ‘A War’, the scenes of domesticity come over as fairly cheesy, but they are still passable and kept to a minimum.

The best sequence is a murderous car chase at night that is brilliantly shot and edited for maximum impact. It is just one heart pounding example of why the film deserves better than to be damned with faint praise.