Complex plot is enjoyable in fictional thriller ‘Green Zone’

By Roger Ebert

Universal UClick

“Green Zone” looks at an American war in a way almost no Hollywood movie ever has: We're not the heroes, but the dupes.

Its message is that Iraq's fabled “weapons of mass destruction” did not exist, and that neocons within the administration fabricated them, lied about them, and were ready to kill to cover up their deception.

Is this true? I'm not here to say. It's a thriller that makes no claim to be based on fact, but provides characters and situations that have uncanny real-life parallels. Its director made two of the Bourne films, and imports his approach to Baghdad, starring Matt Damon as an unstoppable action hero.

But this isn't merely a thriller. It has a point to argue: Critical blunders at the outset made a quick and easy victory impossible, and turned Bush's “Mission Accomplished” photo-op into a historic miscalculation. “Green Zone” argues, as many observers have, that the fatal error of the United States was to fire the officers and men of the Iraqi army and leave them at large with their weapons.

Damon, playing Chief Warrant Officer Roy Miller, is seen at the outset leading a raid on a suspected storage site for WMDs. Nothing there. Another raid, intended to find weapons of chemical warfare, turns up years-old pigeon droppings.

Because some of the raids produce casualties, he begins to question the intelligence reports the raids are based on. He speaks out at a briefing, and rather improbably finds himself face to face with a U.S. intelligence agent named Poundstone (Greg Kinnear). He's fed the usual line and told to perform his duty, but is overheard by Brown, a hulking, grizzled CIA man who's an old Middle East hand. Soon he's meeting with Brown to pass on his doubts.

 “Green Zone” indicates that the CIA, which lacked (as in real life) any evidence to back up the WMD claims, has been cut out of the loop, and that Poundstone is not only the architect of the neocon fictions, but their enforcer; he even has a military group answering directly to him.

Chief Miller also meets a New York newspaper reporter named Lawrie Dayne (Amy Ryan), whose reports about a secret Iraqi informer have given credence to the WMD claims. From her he discovers that General Al Rawi (Igal Naor) of the Iraqi Army met with Poundstone in Jordan, but unlike the source Poundstone cited, flatly told him Saddam had no WMDs. The bad intel was cooked up to justify the war the neocons desired.

Have I made the plot sound complex? Greengrass works with the screenwriter, Brian Helgeland, to tell it with considerable clarity. By limiting the characters and using typecasting, he makes a web of deceit easy to understand. Also a great help to Chief Miller is a local named Freddy (Khalid Abdalla), who risks his life to help him, acts as a translator and is given the film's key line of dialogue.

The action in “Green Zone” is followed by Greengrass in the queasycam style I've found distracting in the past: lots of quick cuts between hand-held shots. It didn't bother me here. That may be because I became so involved in the story.

 “Green Zone” will no doubt be under fire from those who are still defending the fabricated intelligence we used as an excuse to invade Iraq. Yes, the film is fiction, employs far-fetched coincidences and improbably places one man at the center of all the action. It is a thriller, not a documentary.

The bottom line is: This is one hell of a thriller.

FAST TAKERoger Ebert says: ****

What: “Green Zone”

Stars: Matt Damon, Jason Isaacs, Brendan Gleeson, Greg Kinnear, Amy Ryan, Khalid Abdalla, Igal Naor

Where: Coral Ridge 10 in Coralville; Sycamore 12 in Iowa City

Rated: R