Green Zone

Over the past six years Paul Greengrass has developed a reputation for seizing the attention of the audience. Visually this was most apparent in The Bourne Ultimatum and emotionally with United 93. Green Zone is a film in which Greengrass attempts to integrate both. The film is centered upon the beginnings of the Second Gulf War and the search for WMDs. Immediately creating a connection with the audience by jumping into an event not too distant in our past, in fact still ongoing.

The main character of the film is a United States army officer whose task is to find the WMDs for a much too anxious public. The officer is played by Matt Damon whose now been a part of three Greengrass films (Bourne Supremacy, Bourne Ultimatum and The Green Zone). Although his performance cannot be quite framed as complete, Damon does a serviceable job in portraying his character's thought process, actions and a need for truth. This applies to the rest of the cast as well; Brendan Gleeson and Greg Kinnear as CIA operatives, Amy Ryan as a journalist and Yigal Naor as an ex-General who was under Saddam Hussein. All characters represented different quantum on the spectrum of United States involvement in Iraq but for the most part were kept in relatively simple form. The lack of complexity in the characters provided for more of the film to be plot driven as well take shape around the pace and action.

The Green Zone is not astonishingly well written nor is it character based. In essence the film is played safe, no risk is taken with no complexity. At certain points the plot can be sketchy because of the lack of character based details but it holds up. Greengrass shows that he knows how to play it safe. His direction delivers a sold film that can make you ponder over the setting of The Green Zone. It is fairly suspenseful and is able to maintain a good level of interest from start to finish. The film though may not be quite memorable, it just does not take enough risks. I cannot say if Greengrass is at fault for this or not but considering the material from what was shown on the screen, it seems it was maximized. The Green Zone showed glimpses of promise, but just did not open up enough to fully fulfill them or present more.