Seen on: March 9, 2010

The players: Director: Paul Greengrass, Writer: Brian Helgeland, Cast: Matt Damon, Amy Ryan, Greg Kinnear, Brendan Gleeson

Facts of interest: None.

The plot: A military man who is sent to look for WMDs in Iraq gets suspicious of the U.S. government when he comes up empty.

Our thoughts: Paul Greengrass’ war thriller “Green Zone” is an incredibly fast-paced action flick that kidnapped my full attention from the start and kept me ensnared until the very end. It’s an experience that will certainly draw a bunch of hate from some cinemagoers, but in my book, it delivers the goods and doesn’t blow any smoke about the messages it wants to convey.

The first thing you should know about “Zone” is that it’s not a film trying to manipulate viewers by claiming it’s based on facts or a true story. It takes some inspiration from a book by Rajiv Chandrasekaran, but that’s about it. Whatever went down in reality is not the issue here; this film tells its story the way it wants to, and that’s just fine.

The setting is Iraq, following the 2003 U.S. invasion. Matt Damon plays military man Roy Miller, who’s been leading his group of soldiers from one site to another in an attempt to find Saddam’s weapons of mass destruction. Alas, all the places he raids show no sign of a WMD program, which gets Miller thinking: who the heck keeps producing this bogus intel?

That guy would be, among others, Clark Poundstone (Greg Kinnear), a ruthless U.S. military official who claims an Iraqi government source code-named Magellan has supplied him with enough evidence highlighting the existence of WMDs. No one knows where Magellan is or whether he exists, but everybody buys Poundstone’s story. Except for Miller, of course.

What happens next isn’t that hard to figure out. The CIA approaches Miller and tells them they are suspicious about Poundstone’s messy intel as well, and before you know it, Miller heads out on a risky mission to find Magellan in an attempt to uncover and expose the real truth about the existence of weapons of mass destruction.

In my book, Paul Greengrass is the best action director out there right now (take notes, Michael Bay), and if you enjoy his crazy, shaky style, you’ll find it very easy to enjoy this big-screen experience to the fullest extent. The camera jerks around just as much as it did in his “Bourne” flicks, lifting both the intensity of the action sequences and the film’s global atmosphere.

That said, the action in “Green Zone” is fairly limited, even though Matt Damon gets to race and shoot around a bit in a handful of thrilling pursuits. The rest of the plot is established in compelling conversations, most of which are both entertaining and gripping as well. Helping out here are the movie’s excellent acting performances, which really make the film work.

“Green Zone” gets its messages across in a straightforward fashion, even though it’s all a tad too overblown at times. What I like about it is that fact that it offers a different theory on the whole Iraqi war. This time around, the U.S. government officials responsible for triggering the invasion are actually the uncompromising bad guys.

The script by Brian Helgeland has its more or less superficial moments, sure, but Greengrass races through it so fast that viewers don’t necessarily get to reflect on everything they see until the film is over. This can be a bit overpowering for some, even though I admit I had no trouble with the superb pace of the film. It just totally engulfed me.

In this sense, “Green Zone” is way different than most war movies made about Iraq. It’s actually not a real war movie, but more like a thriller making statements on what is right or wrong when it comes to handling situations that involve the fight for a cause. As it so happens, Matt Damon’s heroic character serves as the ideal vessel to convey the film’s central messages.

Freaky quote: "I came here to find weapons and save lives." - Matt Damon, kicking ass again

The final word: “Green Zone” boasts a solid cast (performances by Greg Kinnear and Amy Ryan rule), a decent amount of suspense, and crazy, high-speed editing, and that’s definitely enough to amuse a guy like me. No, it’s not as insanely entertaining as Greengrass’ “Bourne” films, but then again, it doesn’t have to be. This is one I can only recommend.

Article by Franck Tabouring