Green Zone
Between the last two “Bourne” movies and this exciting Iraqi-set thriller, Paul Greengrass has moved to the forefront of modern action filmmakers. The reason? Instead of silly McGuffins and formula villains, his protagonists (in all three cases, played by Matt Damon in peak form) are searching for something much more intriguing- answers. In this case, it’s the search for the truth about the hunt for WMDs after our 2003 invasion of Iraq.
Of course, only the most ardent GOP hawks and most tunnel-visioned Americans know by this point that it was like tracking snipes, which makes this thriller behind the times. But that doesn’t ruin the urgency onscreen, as Damon’s Chief Roy Miller gets caught asking questions (and seeking out answers his superiors would rather he leave to them) when his team finds themselves with faulty intelligence in the search for WMDs. Damon is in peak “Bourne” mode when he’s led on ever-deeper hunts for the truth.
And Greengrass knows how to make this trip down the political rabbit hole exciting. Working with Brian Helgeland’s smart ticking time bomb of a script (which was inspired by the book “Imperial Life in the Emerald City” by Rajiv Chandrasekaran), the “United 93” director blends action and intelligence better than anyone in the business. Here, he follows Miller at the tipping point of the Iraq campaign, when Bush declared “Mission Accomplished” and the administration- led by their people on the ground, who are cut off from the real action in the “green zone” in Baghdad- made the fateful choice to disband the Iraqi army, setting in motion the insurgency to come. It’s as compelling a distillation of modern geopolitical complications as the likes of “The Kingdom” and “the Hurt Locker,” and as thrilling to watch (especially in the final half an hour) as anything in the “Bourne” trilogy. And thanks to superb support from Greg Kinnear as the head of Coalition Provisional Authority in Baghdad, Brendon Gleeson as a CIA vet who knows the truth, and Amy Ryan as a reporter whose reputation has been built on false info, Damon and Greengrass look at things from a lot of angles, even if the things they find aren’t comforting.
