The Kingdom
directed by Peter Berg
Cast : Jamie Foxx, Chris Cooper, Jennifer Garner, Ali Suliman, Kyle Chandler and others.
The film is inspired by actual events of bombing at Khobar housing complex in 1996 and at the Riyadh compound in 2003 in the kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
The plot of the film is about the bombing of a foregin-workers facility in Saudi Arabia.An FBI agent, Francis Manner (Kyle Chandler) who is in the midst of this ruthless attack informs his colleague Special Agent Ronald Fleury (Jamie Foxx) back in USA.Manner is also killed soon in the deadly attacks.
Fleury somehow manages to land in Saudi Arabia along with his team consisting of Special Agent Janet Mayes (Jennifer Garner), Leavitt (Jason Bateman) and Special Agent Grant Sykes (Chris Cooper) to investigate the bombings which killed their colleague Manner. Fleury meets Colonel Faris al-Ghazi (Ashraf Barhom), the commander of Saudi State Police Force in Saudi who is willing to help them investigate the brutal attacks.People back in USA and in Saudi Arabia try to make them stop investigating the attacks but Fleury manages to convince the Prince to let them continue the investigation but they are ordered to go back home after they attack a hideout of terrorists where they find large cache of weapons along with several terrorists dead in the combat.They are attacked on their way to airport and one of their team member is captured and taken away.Fleury along with others chase them and finally he is able to rescue his colleague from them and kill one of main accused in the bombings.
The film is very fast paced with realistic action sequences designed and executed very well with hand held camera movements and the sepia toned images which gives the film a very raw look.The plot is very thin but there are many moments in the film which keeps the audience engaged with the film specially the action scenes which are very hard hitting and dramatic to watch.The actors have performed very well specially Jamie Foxx and Ashraf Barhom, they showed good chemistry on screen as a team.
The highlight scene of the film was the one when Fleury and Faris are about to enter the door of the room where the main accused is hiding.Fleury asks Faris which side allah is, before entering the room and Faris says they are going to find it out, and they bang open the door.This line was execellently written and made me think, it was hard hitting and had a lot of depth and meaning in it.
