An Embassy In A State Of Siege

Every once in awhile a film comes out that one misses. In some cases, they get a theatrical opening in one part of the world, while not such in another part of the world. This is the case with 6 Days, a 2017 action-biography that is a British/ New Zealand co-production. I don’t recall a theatrical release here, but came across the movie in the express DVD section at a library here some days ago. The film concerns itself with the 1980 hostage taking incident in Britain at the Iranian embassy, and follows the points of view of several people involved. It is directed by Toa Fraser, a New Zealand director with some British roots.

The film starts out with a small group of armed men seizing the Iranian embassy in London on the 30^th of April, 1980. Their leader, Salim (Ben Turner), issues demands for the release of Arab prisoners in Iran. The police set up a perimeter to handle the crisis, with one of their best negotiators, Chief Inspector Max Vernon (Mark Strong) taking the lead. The SAS regiment is called to be on standby; among their ranks is a tenacious lance corporal, Rusty Firmin (Jamie Bell). And of course the press descends on the scene; by chance, BBC reporter Kate Adie (Abbie Cornish) and her cameraman are on scene just as the crisis starts to unfold. Over the next six days, the tension slowly builds as the terrorists make demands, the powers that be debate the crisis, the SAS devise scenarios to storm the embassy, and Vernon and his colleagues struggle to bring the crisis to a close.

Despite the film’s poster, this is not particularly an action film. Instead it is a methodical film, efficiently run, building the tension slowly but continually as events unfold. The screenplay, by New Zealander Glenn Standring, follows the events of those six days closely, weaving in and out of perspectives as the movie moves briskly along. What humour might be found tends to lean towards both the dry British type and the gallows kind of humour- the SAS soldiers biding their time waiting, or the friendly rivalries between reporters. Much of the story is serious, and rightfully so. We see the security chiefs meeting from time to time to discuss options, including what’s not on the table. We look in on the terrorists themselves as they hold their hostages and debate what to do. And we see Vernon and his officers work to keep the crisis contained, even while the eyes of the country and the world are on it, all the while knowing that sooner or later the army might well end up taking over.

Fraser takes the screenplay and handles it in that efficient, methodical way, giving time to each of the perspectives, ratcheting up the tension and suspense, but done in a way that’s never forced (I can just imagine someone like Michael Bay handling this and going way over the top with explosions). The whole tone of the film plays more to the resolute keep calm and carry on attitude of Britain. There’s a good deal of attention to detail that grounds it in its time- the unseen Prime Minister Thatcher is new to power, and has her own agenda, which does not include giving terrorists what they want. Iran, meanwhile, is a pariah state at this point whose leader doesn’t mind making martyrs of those inside the embassy, and won’t be moved to intervene. And Arab ambassadors in Britain refuse to get involved.

The SAS look rather rough and tumble and not particularly like soldiers. This makes perfect sense when you remember that they’re not supposed to look like soldiers in real life, so there are no crew cuts among them, but the actors carry themselves with the precise energy and movement of the regiment, reminding you that the British SAS are about the last people on the planet you want to pick a fight with. Their practice drills, planning for contingencies, and tactics and techniques occupy part of their time leading up to the climax of the film, and it’s interesting to watch them at work. And the London police, both in terms of those outside the embassy (and one lone officer who’s among the hostages, wondering if he should take more direct action) come across as steadfast throughout.

Turner, it turns out, is a British actor with an Iranian background, and his take as Salim is a good one. The actor has done work mostly in Britain, including stage and television. The leader of the terrorist group, Salim speaks English, and soon finds himself speaking directly with Vernon. Their interactions, almost entirely by phone, are back and forth, the two sparring, with demands on Salim’s side and countermeasures on Vernon’s side. And yet there’s more to Salim than your typical terrorist as the film unfolds. His cause is at least understandable: the freedom of Arab prisoners from the harsh treatment of Iranian captors, and even in the present day, who’s going to root for Iran? His dispute is with Iran, not Britain, something explicit in the group’s statements. And there are times we see doubt and uncertainty in the man, even in how he’s dealing with his comrades. He’s not sure he’s done the right thing, and that makes him more than just the usual Middle Eastern villain that you’d see in an Americanized film.

Abbie Cornish has done a lot of film work all over the world, and this time out she plays Kate Adie, a young BBC journalist who first comes to the embassy for a completely different story with her cameraman, and then finds herself watching the first stages of the crisis unfold. The real Adie is one of British journalism’s leading voices, and Cornish plays her with competence and a professional air, calm as she reports back live during the crisis. She and her fellow journalists, others working for other media outlets, banter with each other while watching events unfold, becoming effectively a kind of Greek chorus for the film.

Jamie Bell has been around as an actor for a long time, rising to prominence first as his debut in Billy Elliot. He’s had roles since then in productions like King Kong, Fantastic Four, and The Adventures Of Tintin. He plays Rusty Firmin, the most prominent of the SAS soldiers on stand-by in the area as the crisis unfolds. When we first meet him, he’s in the midst of a training drill with the others. Bell plays the character as rough and tumble in personality, something of the working class in him. Yet Firmin is also a professional, always learning from errors, memorizing countless faces, looking for possible problem areas, just like those around him. The actor captures that in his performance, making the man believable.

It's Mark Strong who gives the finest performance of the film as Chief Inspector Max Vernon. The actor has often played the villain or the heavy in films like Stardust, The Young Victoria, or Sherlock Holmes. My favourite role for him is the scenery chewing, brother-murdering prince Septimus in the first of those films. His take as Max is much more sympathetic. A professional well trained in negotiation, Max is methodical and psychological in his techniques, working to establish a rapport with the terrorists. He says he wants to resolve the crisis without loss of life, and we believe him. Over the six days, he’s the lead negotiator in the crisis, taking leave only to go home and get some rest (and see his wife just for sheer emotional relief). The actor keeps that resolute, calm steadiness in the character throughout the film, until at last with the crisis behind him, he can come to grips with the sheer tension he’s been in. It’s a compelling performance to watch.

6 Days turned out to be a surprise. Taking an incident in history that I was not familiar with, weaving in between perspectives, the film turns out to be well worth watching. It lacks the overkill that we would see in a Michael Bay film ( this is a good thing) and instead goes for the measured, steady tone of a British character study, blended in with action just in the right dose.

The Not So Fantastic Reboot

Some links before getting started. Norma had a book cover.  Parsnip had a post on various things. Eve had reflections. Cheryl had a photograph. Krisztina had a dessert idea. Shelly's back up and running. Ivy had a video. Lorelei had a look at a South Dakota monument. And Mark had a movie review.

Today I also have a movie review.

If anything, perhaps this will throw some much needed cold ice on that much overused term reboot. Fantastic Four turned up in theatres, a reboot of the comic book franchise after two previous films from 2005 and 2007, both of which had their problems but in retrospect worked much better than this. The Fox studio has control of the franchise, which doesn’t help- if Marvel Studios had control of these characters, one expects the end result would be an entertaining film. As it is, this film from director Josh Trank, which takes much of its inspiration from the Ultimate version of the characters – that should have been the first warning sign, the Ultimate versions of the Marvel universe suck- ends up not working at all. There are a couple of bright spots, but the problems are too many to compensate.

The film opens up a few years in the past, where a young Reed Richards (Owen Judge) and his friend Ben Grimm (Evan Hanneman) have been working on a customized teleporter since childhood. Flash forward a few years and Reed (Miles Teller) has been recruited into the Baxter Foundation, a government supported think tank for young geniuses run by Franklin Storm (Reg E. Cathey). His son Johnny (Michael B. Jordan) and adopted daughter Sue (Kate Mara) are part of the organization, as is Storm’s irritable protégé Victor von Doom (Toby Kebbell). Dr. Allen (Tim Blake Nelson) is also on staff as a supervisor.

The project they’re working on is a quantum gate designed by Doom (this can’t be good), who reluctantly agrees to complete the project, more because of his unrequited feelings for Sue. Ben (Jamie Bell) is enlisted after the experiment is successful, and an expedition into a parallel dimension called Planet Zero is undertaken without authorization by the younger set- which of course is when everything goes terribly wrong, leaving Reed, Sue, Ben, and Johnny altered with strange abilities, and Doom stranded and presumed dead on Planet Zero. At least for the moment.

Josh Trank has pretty much disavowed the film in the wake of its release, claiming the studio didn’t let him make the film the way he wanted. Perhaps both sides are to blame for the debacle. The script, which Trank is credited with alongside Jeremy Slater and Simon Kinberg, is where the problems begin. The story takes its time actually getting to the point where the characters have their newfound abilities- Reed stretches, Sue can turn invisible and create force fields, Johnny becomes a blazing inferno in flight, Ben becomes a rock bound powerhouse, and Doom has the ability to control the elements through telekinesis- and then ends up becoming muddled in CGI special effects sci-fi. The studio would have you believe it reflects the best of the comic book’s eras, but there’s far too much influence of the Ultimate universe in this, and it really shows.

The Ultimate universe, created some years ago as a way to tell stories without the continuity of the mainstream comics, quickly ended up bogged down under its own continuity and has been imploding on itself for some time. The Fantastic Four were skewed younger, as is the case here, and elements of their storylines reflect themselves in the movie script. There’s a good reason the Ultimate books have imploded- they’re bombastic, obnoxious, and just plain bad. That should have been a big warning to any screenwriter taking on Marvel’s first family: don’t base your story on this. The script is downbeat, lacking any of the humour and rich characterization one sees from the comic when it’s written at its best. The dynamics between characters feel off, and the story stumbles at times instead of flows. The look of the film, from the uniforms the team wears to the final look of Doom- all have the Ultimate look to them, and it’s to the detriment of the film. Basically it feels less as a movie in and of its own right and more like the inevitable teaser for the sequel.

And it’s not the cast- though some are miscast. Toby Kebbell is an actor I’ve seen in other work- in Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes, for instance, where he was hidden beneath motion capture technology as one of the apes, or as John Wilkes Booth in The Conspirator (I highly recommend that one) or Aginor in the profoundly cheesy Wrath Of The Titans. He’s likable as an actor- I found myself wondering why they didn’t cast him as Reed instead. The problem with Doom is not in the actor- it’s the writing. In the comics, the character is arrogant and vindictive and petty- he thinks highly of himself and lowly of every other person on Earth. He’s also a tyrant, absolute ruler of a fictional Eastern European country, and often tangles with many different heroes, but particularly the Fantastic Four. And he’s encased in armor, his scarred face hidden from the world. It’s such a compelling character in the comics, one whose origins are completely separate from the Four. Is it so hard for screenwriters to write him properly, or refrain from lumping him in on the FF origin story? Doom was written wrong in the two Fantastic Four films from several years ago, and just like Julian McMahon, who played him then, Kebbell isn’t at fault for the character- he has to work with what he’s given, and what he’s given is a vengeful, petty man who ends up going insane.

Jamie Bell might well have been better cast as Reed- he has the gravity as an actor to seem more plausible in that role. He’s been around for awhile now as an actor, and has had quite a variety of roles in his time. A lot of his performance once the character becomes The Thing is motion capture, the same sort of work Andy Serkis has often done through his career. The character seems underwritten, but Bell plays him as a loyal and generous friend before he disappears into the motion capture world. At least the character has the look you expect of Ben Grimm.

Much has been made of Michael Jordan’s casting as Johnny Storm. It’s a racial switch, after all, and one might wonder about the optics of a black man being set on fire. What matters to me is if the actor can play the character as one might expect: a carefree, showboating daredevil thrill seeker with a lot of charm. And Jordan does that. This is the first time I’ve seen him in anything, though he did have a part in the critically acclaimed series The Wire. He plays the role in a suitable way, making the most of the material he’s given- so like Kebbell and Bell, he’s not to blame for the way the film ends up going.

Kate Mara is one of the few bright spots of the film as Sue Storm. I’ve loved her work in Stone Of Destiny and 127 Hours, and she turned up in the series House Of Cards as well. She’s better cast- much better- than Jessica Alba, who was easily the weakest member of the cast in the earlier films. Sue is bright, independent, and strong, and Mara brings dignity to the role. Like other members of the cast, she’s stuck in a story that doesn’t work, so we can’t fault her for this debacle either. Still, just to reinforce the point- she’s the best thing this film has going for it.

Which brings us to Miles Teller. To be fair, I haven’t seen him in anything else. I know he’s been in the Divergent series. He just seems miscast here- and that’s not really on him either. I just can’t buy that a guy who looks like he barely started shaving could have the gravity and dramatic weight to pull off being the smartest person on the planet. And it’s not the actor- it’s the writing that skews him younger than he should be, the miscasting in this role. He’d probably be much more interesting in a different movie- something that applies to the rest of the cast. I just can’t see him as Reed Richards. Ioan Gruffudd, who played the character in the previous films, got the intelligence and the sense of profound responsibility right in his performance. Teller is left to the serious weaknesses of a poorly written script.

What should be a bright light in comics movies turns out to be a muddled film, devoid of humour and the sense of family that makes the comic series work so well. Characterization is sacrificed for a downbeat CGI fest, and the problems derive largely out of the story itself. Fantastic Four instead ends up feeling like a setup for the inevitable sequel. The director might be trying to blame the studio, but the studio’s not the only one at fault here. The cast deserves better, the characters deserve better, and frankly the audience deserve better.