Tuesday, August 28, 2018

Operation Finale Movie Review

Ben Kingsley stars in Operation Finale

For the Ones Who Can't

Rotten Tomatoes Plot: Fifteen years after the end of World War II, Israel's intelligence agency Mossad and security agency Shin Bet - led by the tireless and heroic agent Peter Malkin (Oscar Isaac) - launched a daring top-secret raid to capture the notorious Adolf Eichmann (Ben Kingsley), who had been reported dead in the chaos following Nazi Germany's collapse but was, in fact, living and working in a suburb of Buenos Aires, Argentina under an assumed identity along with his wife and two sons. Monitoring his daily routine, Malkin and his operatives plot and execute the abduction under the cover of darkness just a few feet from Eichmann's home. Determined to sneak him out of Argentina to stand trial in Israel, Malkin and Eichmann engage in an intense and gripping game of cat-and-mouse. Directed by Chris Weitz.


Weitz's Operation Finale isn't your typical Nazi hunter movie, a la The Boys from Brazil or 2010's The Debt. It's billed as a thriller, but with one notable exception (an eerie Nazi sympathizer meeting) there isn't much suspense at all, yet alone thrills. This is particularly noticeable in the film's final hour or so, when Eichmann & Malkin do "battle" over (what amounts to) a signed permission slip. Isaac's terrific, and Kingsley, solid as ever, despite being too nice (not to mention 20 years too old.) Good to look at, but overlong (122 minutes) and short on excitement/surprises.

Grade: C+