Operation Finale

Starring: Oscar Isaac, Ben Kingsley, Melanie Laurent, Lior Raz, Nick Kroll, Michael Aronov, Ohad Knoller, Greg Hill, Torben Liebrecht, Haley Lu Richardson
Directed by: Chris Weitz
Rating: PG-13
Genre: Drama
2018

Times Seen:
Tim: 1


Summary: A team works together to hunt down a former Nazi officer (Ben Kingsley) directly responsible for the death of millions of Jewish people during the Holocaust.

Review:

Tim: I'm quite frankly surprised I didn't enjoy Operation Finale more. It's a true story about the good guys tracking down an ex-Nazi officer to bring him to justice. There's nothing worse than a Nazi, so this movie should have been more enjoyable. Unfortunately, there was just something off about the film. It's a decent movie, for sure- but it never feels like a film that's worth our investment.

Now, I don't want to take anything away from movies centered around World War II and its aftermath. There's something legitimately important about movies reflecting on this time period and the atrocities committed there so we're not doomed to repeat history at some point. I get that and I believe in it and I support it. However, there's another side of the coin and it's that we've gotten dozens and dozens of movies set in this time period. Seriously, I've seen so many WWII era movies. They can still work, but there needs to be something to differentiate it. Why it this movie worth seeing when dozens of similar films have already been made? Operation Finale never fully answers that. Sure, it's possible this particular story hasn't been depicted on screen before, but we've gotten movies like this already. The whole film felt like "yet another" film, rather than a must-see event. The movie itself feels like that, too. It tells the story you expect, it has some strong moments, but everything about it feels lackluster and uninspired. We know Nazis are bad and it was important to track them all down. Substantially better movies have tackled this subject. I know that we'll likely never see the end of World War II movies, but it feels like 50+ years of them has covered nearly all the bases.

I have to say, the movie might be staying true to life, but this story wasn't all that compelling. A team of agents is assembled to capture the suspected ex-Nazi officer, they grab him, hold him in a house for a period of time, and then try to get him out of the country. The movie works hard to create some suspenseful scenes, but director Chris Weitz never fully accomplishes this. The events of this film were historically and morally important, but they don't make for the greatest cinematic experience. The film as a whole truly was never as engaging as it needed to be. Weitz doesn't direct a boring movie, but I never felt any kind of investment in the characters or the story.

I liked Oscar Isaac in this role, although I didn't quite love his performance. Isaac is a really strong actor and it feels like his talent should result in many, many Academy Award nominations for acting. However, he keeps picking this films where his performance matters, but the movie itself fails to live up to expectations. He's good here, but it's a bit of a forgettable role in a forgettable movie. Ben Kingsley, on the other hand, has some really strong scenes. He had the harder job, to play a former Nazi and make him just the tiniest bit sympathetic. Kingsley is the best part of this film and I enjoyed his scenes with Isaac. Seeing these two together was definitely a positive. I like Melanie Laurent, but I was disappointed she had so little to do here. She wasn't fully leveraged. It was nice seeing Nick Kroll here- he did well in a small role. I also enjoyed Haley Lu Richardson's small part. The cast as a whole was fine, but less remarkable than they needed to be.

Operation Finale is a decent movie. It just feels a bit too generic and forgettable. I appreciated the telling of this true story and it's always a good reminder (especially in our current political climate) that Nazis are bad. However, the movie never did anything special and I couldn't muster much excitement about it.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: 6.5



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