Movie Review - 'Green Zone'

Green Zone Starring Matt Damon, Greg Kinnear, and Brendan Gleeson Directed by Paul Greengrass Rated R

Whether it's a slightly flawed movie or just a victim of unique circumstance, Green Zone just never becomes what it should. If this were the first film to dramatize the events in Iraq over the past seven years, then it's entirely possible this film would get under our skin a little more. But less than a week after The Hurt Locker won the Academy Award, Green Zone almost feels like an empty exercise, somewhat clumsily combining the standards of a taut action movie with the heavier elements of a war critique. It's still a pretty good movie, just one that leaves you before you finish the drive home. Part of that is that it's a search for nothing. Green Zone tackles a mission to find Weapons of Mass Destruction, the great foreign policy MacGuffin. Hard to slap an audience-pleasing finish on that movie. To turn that ending on its head, Green Zone gives us Chief Warrant Officer Roy Miller (Matt Damon), a soldier just following orders until he realizes that the orders are the problem. After three visits to supposed WMD sites come up empty, Miller begins to question the intelligence. His suspicions are more or less confirmed by a Wall Street Journal reporter (Amy Ryan) and a CIA agent (Brendan Gleeson), both of home have come to immediately question the company line. On the other side, there's the Defense Department's Clark Poundstone (Greg Kinnear), whose job is obfuscation. The less the troops on the ground know, the better Poundstone is doing his job. The less they question, even better. Soon, the gunsights are locked in on Miller as he tries to uncover the absolute truth behind the truth he thinks he already knows. And here's where Green Zone finds a little bit of trouble. The obvious connection to the Jason Bourne films - same star and director (Paul Greengrass), same mistrust of the shadowy government - can't be buried too far beneath the surface, and I'm not sure Greengrass even wants to. The action isn't the same, but it serves a similar function. Beyond Greengrass' pulse-quickening directing style, Green Zone is fairly pedestrian. Damon seems rigid. The supporting players push the buttons they're supposed to, but that's it. And no matter what you think of the WMD push - bad intelligence or deliberately misleading fearmongering - none of that makes this story more compelling. So the question becomes whether or not Greengrass should have framed his action with more details or less. Probably less. And probably less exact in where it places the blame. Adding a layer of mystery could have kept things moving to an unknown point, as opposed to taking a beeline to a destination we've seen on the news for half a decade.

Comments

[Don Draper]

Forget it Jake It's Chinatown. The only problem with this flick is the title, when I hear Green Zone I think of the 30 Rock episode "Greenzo" I would like to see Paul Greengrass tackle a drama that doesn't involve spies or politics. Maybe a comedy how about a reboot of Spies Like Us & have Matt Damon & Ben Affleck team up with Jon Favereau Vince Vaughn Simon Pegg & Nick Frost written by Ricky Gervais Stephen Merchant Ben & Matt along with well everyone it would be brillant.

[Susan]

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