The subject of this movie has a lot of natural overlap with Adam Driver's 2019 film, The Report. When I saw that film a couple years back, I didn't come away with a super high opinion. I thought the story didn't translate to the screen in a compelling way, resulting in a dry experience that made me wish I had just read the Wikipedia article instead. Luckily, this film does not suffer from the same problem. The key difference is that we now get the POV of a character who is going through this awful experience first hand, rather than just seeing things through the lens of an investigator years later. It's a much more emotionally and narratively compelling perspective. Of course, this is largely thanks to Tahar Rahim, who delivers a spectacular performance as the titular Mauritanian. In the midst of such dehumanizing conditions, Rahim makes sure that the audience still sees Slahi's humanity. While the legal drama outside of Guantanamo feels a bit manufactured at times, it ultimately does its job and certainly doesn't detract from the powerful story at the center of this film.
Shout by SkinnyFilmBuffVIP 8BlockedParent2022-08-28T15:39:47Z
The subject of this movie has a lot of natural overlap with Adam Driver's 2019 film, The Report. When I saw that film a couple years back, I didn't come away with a super high opinion. I thought the story didn't translate to the screen in a compelling way, resulting in a dry experience that made me wish I had just read the Wikipedia article instead. Luckily, this film does not suffer from the same problem. The key difference is that we now get the POV of a character who is going through this awful experience first hand, rather than just seeing things through the lens of an investigator years later. It's a much more emotionally and narratively compelling perspective. Of course, this is largely thanks to Tahar Rahim, who delivers a spectacular performance as the titular Mauritanian. In the midst of such dehumanizing conditions, Rahim makes sure that the audience still sees Slahi's humanity. While the legal drama outside of Guantanamo feels a bit manufactured at times, it ultimately does its job and certainly doesn't detract from the powerful story at the center of this film.