Some people just hate shaky cam. Normally it doesn't bother me as much as some, but from a visual perspective it can greatly detract from your viewing experience. The Blair Witch Project, Cloverfield, Paul Greengrass's two Bourne films—at least those had strong enough stories that you could look beyond a director in desperate need of a tripod.
Yes, folks, Greengrass is back and in overdrive with Green Zone. While it may have brought a sense of involvement to the proceedings of his Bourne films—and makes sense in a film about the war in Iraq—when the story comes down to a simple whodunit in the desert, the shaky cam is more than unnecessary. Even a simple shot handled with a steadicam would have sufficed, but if the camera isn't moving then apparently Greengrass just isn't satisfied.
Photo courtesy Universal Pictures
The story opens in March of 2003 in Baghdad. We see a group led by Al Rawi (Yigal Naor) being evacuated as the surroundings are under attack. While stuff blows up outside in the background, you get immediately distracted as subtitles fly in the way of the foreground, which only confuse things more since you can't tell who's even saying the dialogue.
Four weeks later, Chief Roy Miller (Matt Damon) is leading his group in search of weapons of mass destruction, or WMDs. Their latest excursion takes them to an abandoned toilet factory warehouse, meaning three strikeouts in a row for Miller & Co. After expressing his concerns over the validity of their intel, he's pulled aside by CIA agent Martin Brown (Brendan Gleeson) who agrees with Miller's theories and asks him to join their side.
The opposing side to the CIA is led by Clark Poundstone (Greg Kinnear) who is being hounded by Lawrie Dayne (a totally underused Amy Ryan) reporting for the Wall Street Journal. Poundstone is getting his information from a source known as "Magellan" whom Lawrie wants to meet herself for interview purposes, while Miller—working with his self-made "interpreter," Freddy (Khalid Abdalla)—and Brown are trying to figure out who "Magellan" is, because of the crappy (pun intended) intel.
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