‘Green Zone’ director takes brave risk (3.5/5)

Green Zone

Starring: Matt Damon, Brendan Gleeson, Khalid Abdalla
Directed by: Paul Greengrass
Rating: R for violence and language
Running time: 1 hour, 55 minutes.

“Green Zone” is an exceptionally risky film for director Paul Greengrass (“Bourne Ultimatum,” “United 93”) to take on so soon after the Iraq invasion.

Make no mistake, Greengrass doesn’t shirk from accusing the United States government of fabricating the Weapons of Mass Destruction.

In fact, that’s pretty much the point of the whole movie.

Based on the 2006 nonfiction “Imperial Life in the Emerald City” by journalist Rajiv Chandrasekaran, “Green Zone” focuses on Chief Warrant Officer Roy Miller (Matt Damon in his traditional comfort role of a butt-kicking rogue seeking the truth). Miller is getting just a little miffed that the WMDs he is searching for with the government’s intel just don’t seem to be there.

When Miller dares to voice his doubts about the questionable intel at a debriefing, much to the chagrin of his superiors, he catches the eye of CIA Baghdad Bureau Chief Martin Brown (Brendan Gleeson) who also doubts the intel and motivation of the United States.

An outstanding addition to the movie is the character of Freddy (Khalid Abdalla), an Iraqi who risks his life to aid the American soldiers and, he hopes, to save his country from sinking even further into death and despair. Freddy often serves as the voice of the film’s moral points.

An unnerved Freddy leads Miller and his team to the hideout of “Jack of Clubs” Al-Rawi, a senior Iraqi government official, and what they uncover pushes Miller’s doubts in his own government even further.

A particularly poignant moment comes when Freddy tells Miller, the traditional protagonist and character whom the audience is supposed to want to see succeed, that it is not up to Miller and the Americans to determine the fate of his country, combating our “American” drive to “fix” everything.

An important but forgettable character, Washington Post journalist Lawrie Dayne (Amy Ryan), shows the media’s role in getting caught up with the faulty intel themselves but realizing, perhaps too late, the obscene lack of evidence. Dayne consistently aggravates her government source, Pentagon Special Intelligence officer Clark Poundstone, who tells her repeatedly that access to Iraqi intel source “Magellan” won’t happen.

Another driving scene is the Iraqi’s response to “American puppet” Ahmed Zubaidi attempting to petition for the country’s leadership, and Poundstone’s realization that such a move will not be as easy as he and others had expected.

Despite its political wrappings, however, “Green Zone” is an action movie at its heart, complete with good guy vs. bad guy charisma; long, pointless chase scenes; and a very, very hefty amount of vertigo-inducing shaky camera scenes reminiscent of the “Bourne” films.

But the appeal of this movie comes from its absolute relevance to today’s world. “Green Zone” is a highly thought-provoking film that dares to thrust into the fore the nearly taboo thought (to some) of fabricated intel as a basis for a war which has cost so much.

3 1/2 of 5 stars