Director: Zal Batmanglij, Main Cast: Brit Marling, Alexander Skarsgård, Ellen Page
The premises are pretty good: young and brilliant operative, who works for a private intelligence firm, infiltrates a anarchist/eco-terrorist group to gather information and protect the interests of big corporations. As she gets to know better the members of the group she starts to go Donnie Brasco and also to feel undeniably attracted to the mysterious and charismatic leader Benji (Alexander Skarsgard! and who can blame her?!). The problems I have with this film are several. Firstly, Marling’s character (Sarah/Jane) has a u-turn about corporate world, did she lived under a rock up until the moment of going undercover? She is working for a private intelligence company for heaven’s sake! Is she that naive or really dumb? It cannot be because she is “too intelligent for her own good” as her boss told her. So, sorry, I’m not buying it. Secondly, for someone who lived for weeks on the streets or in a house in ruin (I come back to this later) Sarah has amazing hair, she always looks like she just left the hair salon. Thirdly, the wood around the house reminds me of the elevator in Grey’s Anatomy…seriously? Our would-be lovers keep meeting each other there, totally randomly, and eventually become lovers…there…among dead leaves, branches and, probably, stones…it looks uncomfortable to say the least. Now, the house, HQ of the group, is made of wood, it has supposedly being burned down by Benji in the past…well it is very well preserved, some artful holes in the wall but still very serviceable floors, ceilings and stairs. Sure, it could have been repaired by the some crafty drifter but then why the artful holes? To be more eco-friendly? Anyway, the final stroke is the ending when Sarah (now back to Jane) chooses to be good and save the world from the evil corporations almost single-handedly. A missed opportunity to explore an interesting subject. Watch the Constant Gardener instead.–4/10
Ramblings of a cinephile 