Tahar Rahim completism with very diminished returns. Directed by Kevin Macdonald (Last King of Scotland (2006), State of Play (2009)) from a screenplay that Michael Bronner, Rory Haines and Sohrab Noshirvani derived from protagonist Mohamedou Ould Slahi's book Guantánamo Diary (2015).
"The Mauritanian" Slahi (Rahim) got caught up in the post-9/11 dragnet and ends up at Guantánamo. No-character players, lawyers Jodie Foster and flirty, credulous Shailene Woodley (Ferrari (2023)), took up his case. Benedict Cumberbatch played Stuart Couch, an assigned prosecutor who choked on the evidence of torture. Ultimately everyone won except the audience.
The actors did all they could; the fault is entirely in the script. I felt Rahim converged somewhat with those battered-faced sufferers Peter Mullan (Swanny) and Stephen Graham. The production seemed to be a vastly simplified, flattened and heavy-handed variant of his breakout A Prophet (2009) and perhaps he is destined to have his first role be his best.
It seems archaic to revisiting these topics in 2021, especially as we don't learn much from the torture/enhanced interrogation scenes and coarsely sketched religious bits. It was news to me that Michael Mori was not the only military lawyer to take a conscientious stand but that mostly shows I didn't think about it too hard. I did enjoy the "Do Not Harm the Iguanas — Penalty $10,000" sign.
Jeannette Catsoulis. Two stars from Brian Tallerico at Roger Ebert's venue: never "more challenging or interesting than a superficial, manipulative accounting of true events." The cinematography is sometimes effective. The real-doco outro over the credits is superior as it so often is. Dehumanising.
