Operation Finale

photo courtesy of teaser-trailer.com

SPOILER-FREE REVIEW

     Oscar Isaac is a Nazi hunter in Operation Finale, a historical drama depicting the capture of Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann (Ben Kingsley). After the war, Eichmann escaped to Buenos Aires, where he lived for years until a team of Israeli secret agents, including Isaac’s Peter Malkin, located him. But in Operation Finale, finding Eichmann is only half the battle. Smuggling him into Israel to stand trial… that’s a bit more complicated.

     Contrary to what you might expect from a movie about the exciting capture of a Nazi criminal by a team of Israel spies, Operation Finale spends a good deal of its runtime observing conversations between its two main characters. Malkin and Eichmann almost certainly never had this level of personal connection, but Operation Finale depicts their relationship as crucial to the story—the lynchpin between the capture and the dramatic escape. They’re presented as a duo along the lines of Clarice Starling and Hannibal Lecter; one is the savvy but headstrong protagonist, the other the master manipulator. We watch as the two engage in a battle of wits.

photo courtesy of theatlantic.com

     The dynamic has its moments, to be sure, but much like Operation Finale as a whole, it only reaches a modest level of success. It certainly never grasps the kind of intricacy or excitement that Silence of the Lambs so naturally conveys. Eichmann simply isn’t creepy or capricious enough, and Malkin, despite a reliable performance from Isaac, doesn’t hold a candle to Starling.

     Other parts of Operation Finale also lend themselves to unfavorable comparisons. Some scenes feel contemplative and brooding like Munich, which sees Israeli secret agents counting the cost of their bloody brand of justice. Others evoke Argo, where another team of operatives has to be smuggled out under the nose of a watchful enemy. In both cases, Operation Finale is the less interesting of the pair.

photo courtesy of rollingstone.com

     This is not to say that Operation Finale is altogether dull or derivative. History buffs and World War genre fans will likely want to pay attention, if for no other reason than to see how the movie alternatively deviates from or stays loyal to the real story. For more casual viewers, there’s enough intrigue in the method and style of Eichmann’s capture to make it a worthwhile experience. And even if it’s not as wrenching as similar moments in Argo, the team’s last-minute escape will certainly keep you on edge.

     But the problem, I think, originates in the script. There are obvious blunders—an odd choice of cold open, an underwritten female love interest—but beneath its surface-level blemishes, the screenplay lacks something vital, something memorable, something that convinces the audience that this (really rather thin) story deserves to be adapted into a full-length movie. As a World War II movie, Operation Finale works within fruitful territory for storytelling. There’s a host of ready-made imagery (powerful, nauseating, inspiring, the whole shebang) at its disposal. Yet somehow, Operation Finale struggles to invoke the imagery in a way that invests the audience in the action. Even when it hits all the right buttons, there’s no passion in it. Without that vital ingredient, Operation Finale settles for middle-of-the-road.

TRAILER

Watch the trailer here.

photo courtesy of smithsonianmag.com