Green Zone

No, it isn’t another film in the Bourne series although Director Paul Greengrass and star Matt Damon would have wished the success to be the same. GREENZONE, written by Brian Helgeland (Man On Fire, The Taking of Pelham 123) and co-starring Greg Kinnear (The Matador, Little Miss Sunshine) and Amy Ryan (Gone Baby Gone) involves a Chief Warrant Officer (Damon) who, after coming up empty handed on three sites said to contain WMD’s, begins to question the source of the information which leads down a nasty road of lies and deceit. Kinnear plays the villainous Clark Poundstone who attempts to convince the audience he stands for the well-being of the newly liberated Iraq but is not a very nice guy while actress Amy Ryan plays a journalist who finds herself in a sticky situation when she attempts to interview Kinnear’s source codenamed “Magellan”

Overall, the story should have worked. If you lean to the political right or left, you can clearly see the message the filmmakers wished to convey. The war in Iraq was badly managed. On that point this movie was successful but on the front of making a thrilling action film with deep and rich characters, GREENZONE is far from successful.

Don’t get me wrong. Greengrass does what he always does. The camera is shaking around, giving us a constant sense of excitement and tension but it didn’t always work for the scene. For example, there’s a moment where Damon is walking back to his Humvee to inform his men of a mission and we, as audience, have to hold our breath for fear of vomiting. In camera movement like this works for chase scenes (such as the end of film) which was thrilling and lively which lived up to Greengrass’ Bourne films but the scenes in which characters were talking, I felt like I was drunk. It didn’t work.

I have enjoyed most of writer Brian Helgeland’s films. Man On Fire was an excellent story with grandiose dialogue and superb pacing but GREENZONE was not his finest two hours. Damon’s character was one dimensional whose motives seemed rooted in undermining the US Army’s efforts in Iraq by inquiring about Intel in front of the leading commanders. He went AWOL several times in the film to find “the bad guys”. I’m no military expert but if an officer goes AWOL out in the field during a mission I’m pretty sure he wouldn’t be in command for very much longer. He also seemed to be the only person in the US military that cared about human lives which I know is not the case. I couldn’t help but feel that he was naive and should know better than to work so hard to uncover “the truth”.

The one-liners killed me in this film as well (I wouldn’t have expected so many). With such phrases as “Put your f*cking game face on, soldier” and Damon’s response to his first officers plea that their job in Iraq is to follow orders and the reasons don’t matter, Damon replies “They matter to me” followed by groans from the audience. There were several other instances where the filmmakers wished for the audience to sit on the edge of their sit, biting their nails in anticipation but instead everyone laughed out loud. Bad dialogue can pull you out of film faster than anything else and remind you that what your watching is a couple of actors going through the motions and not an honest depiction of real events.

I’m going to have to blame writer Brian Helgeland and Director Paul Greengrass for the acting and corny one-liners but I do have to give them credit for creating a compelling action sequence at the films close. With a chase scene that rivals anything we’ve seen the last two Bourne films, the climatic end to GREENZONE does exactly what Greengrass and Damon promised, another Bourne film without Jason Bourne. The crew along with the actors held a breakneck pace of non stop action and realistic military jargon that proved everyone did their research. Damon clearly remembered the physical struggles of playing ex-CIA operative Jason Bourne and channeled much of the characters passion and expertise. It worked, to summarize it but that was only about twenty minutes of the film.

GREENZONE is a decent action thriller which is sure to entertain but don’t expect any awards to be bestowed on the actors or filmmakers. Also, do yourself a favor and forget the marketing campaign for this film, as disappointment is sure to set in when you realize this isn’t another Bourne film but rather it’s own story.

Written by Sean Coppens