A Take on Tribeca 2011: ‘The Assault’ Review

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGhUfK688MI

The Assault, a French thriller based on the 1994 Christmastime hijacking of Air France Flight 8969 and the mission to recover the plane and the hostages inside, is simply put, damn intense, especially in the film’s final harrowing 15 minutes that left my hands shaking as I left the theater. But instead of tapping into and embracing the uncertainty and danger of counter-terrorism teams that kept my eyes glued to the screen, The Assault tries to have it both ways. It tries to thrill the audience with a stale narrative, yet keeps up the pretense of being a “serious” film. Instead of a solid action flick or a contemplative tense thriller, The Assault falls somewhere into the chasm between the two.

The movie focuses on Thierry Prugnaud (played by Paris native Vincent Elbaz), a member of an elite French counter-terrorism and hostage rescue SWAT team. After a group of Algerian terrorists lead by the fanatical Yahia (Aymen Saidi) hijacks a Paris-bound Air France flight, Theirry and his squad are rushed to the scene and into an inevitable bloody standoff with the suicidal zealots. While the SWAT team prepares for the ensuing operation, a French Interior Ministry assistant (Mélanie Bernier) seeks to prove herself to her doubting superiors.

The acting is the film’s greatest success. Each actor, from Elbaz’s conflicted Theirry to Saidi’s superb Tahia to Bernier as the ambitious assistant, grasps the seriousness of the topic and brings a solid performance to the mix.

Yet look of the film causes a few problems. Nearly all color been bleached from the film stock, leaving The Assault with a nearly black-and-white aesthetic that comes across as dull rather than stylish. The film’s unsteady cinematography, reminiscent of the “Shaky-cam” technique popularized by the Bourne trilogy, surrounds the audience in the action, with dizzying and often nauseating effects. The camera zooms in and out as characters speak, as if the operator was hopped up on three cups of coffee and couldn’t sit still. The scenes in between the action become nearly unbearable.

Once the actions starts, however, the cinema-verite style actually begins to work. The confused spiraling camera is intercut with actual news footage of the assault to great effect. When one of the plane’s pilots dives from the plane’s cockpit in a fit of horror, the film cuts to shocking footage of the real pilot falling to the tarmac, crumpling into a silent heap.

But for every moment of intensity — and there are many throughout the film — there is an action-thriller trope on full display. Theirry’s precocious infant constantly coos for “Daddy.” A nervous wife drops and breaks a glass as the GIGN prepare to take back the airplane. An injured SWAT officer sees his life flash before his eyes. Thierry’s superiors argue over the right course of action as time ticks away. Theirry himself is flawed in such a traditionally French way, constantly handsome and lost in thought, that it becomes difficult to relate to him at times. Elbaz seems almost too introspective at times, staring wistfully as he walks away from a violent mission. He stands alone staring at the target down the range, breathing deeply while his eyes betray a knowing realization that he is living on borrowed time. It’s all been done before, and better. Steven Spielberg’s Munich captured the severity and danger of anti-terrorism operations in ways The Assault can only dream of replicating.

There’s also something unintentionally unsettling about watching a film so gung-ho about killing Islamic terrorists knowing that it comes from a country that recently banned burqas and other traditional veils. Granted, The Assault was produced and released long before the ban went into effect, but I couldn’t help notice the duality. In one scene, Bernier’s assistant urges the French ministry to authorize deadly force, despite the risks. “We have to show our fangs,” she says. Perhaps the cultural ostracism of Muslims in France culminating in the burqa ban is another form of that same idea.

There’s no denying The Assault’s visceral punch, but over-used Shaky-cam, a retreaded plotline, and action flick cliches bring this sky-high thriller back down to earth: C+

 

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