The Kingdom

The Kingdom (2007) opens with an attack on a compound where Americans live in Saudi Arabia. An FBI agent's friend is among the dead. Washington does not want to send a team for political reasons; an FBI unit finds its own way in for five days and has to work with a local colonel. Its best quality is procedural. The team tries to gather evidence and needs permission at every step; they cannot touch the bodies, cannot photograph, cannot question anyone. The cultural and legal obstacles are what build the tension. It opens with a four minute animated history: the discovery of oil, the Saudi and American relationship, and 11 September. That sequence was much discussed at the time. Peter Berg directed. Jamie Foxx, Chris Cooper, Jennifer Garner and Jason Bateman make up the team, and Ashraf Barhom plays the Saudi colonel Faris Al Ghazi, the best character in the film. It was shot in Arizona and the United Arab Emirates; filming in Saudi Arabia was not possible. The closing lines rest on two people on opposite sides saying the same sentence, and the film's whole argument is there. Against that, the last half hour becomes a straight action film and undercuts it. It runs 110 minutes. Good for: procedural tension, political action, and Ashraf Barhom. Less good for: the film starts as an investigation and turns into a firefight, and the shift is abrupt. Most of the Saudi characters are written as threats or obstacles. The handheld camera is relentless.