Everett, Washington
ENT
Published: Friday, March 18, 2016, 12:10 a.m.
http://www.heraldnet.com/article/20160318/ENT/160319273
‘Eye in the Sky’ hits its intended target
By Robert Horton Herald movie critic
@citizenhorton
Remember the best scene in “Patriot Games,” when Harrison Ford and his CIA colleagues watched a raid on a terrorist camp via satellite? The video gamelike attack gave a disquieting ripple to an otherwise gung-ho spy movie.
That dramatic idea is expanded in “Eye in the Sky,” which takes place in a world where there’s much more technology to play with. Although “play” might not be the right word.
Screenwriter Guy Hibbert uses the tools of modern warfare for a global morality play. The film visualizes all the locations that are involved in a single drone strike.
A joint action by the U.K. and the U.S. has located a terrorist cell in a house in Kenya. Not only are these bad people, they’ve got a couple of suicide bombers getting ready to go out and do harm.
In the command bunker, a British colonel (Helen Mirren) wants to call in the strike before anybody can escape. In another part of England, her immediate superior (Alan Rickman) is debriefing a trio of UK politicos (including the witty Jeremy Northam as a career buck-passer), all reluctant to make a decision.
Meanwhile, in a high-tech shed on a Nevada base, the Air Force drone pilot (Aaron Paul, from “Breaking Bad”) has his hand on the remote trigger, ready to loose his Hellfire missile on the target. Next to him is a green rookie (Phoebe Fox) at the drone’s video controls, providing the incredibly precise footage of the target.
There’s also an image analyst in a room in Pearl Harbor, and a few assorted politicians and undercover agents in Kenya. All the back-and-forth just reinforces how disembodied everybody is from the actual target.
The big complication is the presence of a little Kenyan girl who sets up a roadside stand selling bread—right next to the target house. Now it’s a matter of mathematical formula—what are the odds of the child becoming collateral damage? And would you trade the life of a little girl to save the lives of other potential victims?
Some fine actors fill out the rather cut-and-dried characters. This is Rickman’s final live-action role, and he brings a nicely-judged weariness to his belligerent character. “Captain Phillips” hijacker Barkhad Abdi is compelling as a Kenyan agent trying to figure out a way to save the kid’s life.
Director Gavin Hood (“Tsotsi”) leans heavily on every big plot point, and the suspense might be a little easier to admire if it weren’t so relentlessly squeezed out of the tube.
Plenty of food for thought, if not very subtly done. At the very least, the film’s destined to be used in classrooms for years.
“Eye in the Sky” 2 ½ stars
What goes into a single drone strike? This film shows the half-dozen locations involved in the action, from politicians in board rooms to military brass in bunkers to Air Force pilots remotely operating the drone from a shed in Nevada. The characters are cut-and-dried, but the film gets undeniable suspense going in its morality play. With Helen Mirren, Aaron Paul, Alan Rickman.
Rating: R, for violence, language
Showing: Regal Meridian in Seattle
© 2016 The Daily Herald Co., Everett, WA
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