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DAMASCUS COVER
Director: Daniel Zelik Berk Cast: Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Olivia Thirlby, Navid Negahban, John Hurt, Jürgen Prochnow, Igal Naor, Selva Rasalingam, Neta Riskin MPAA
Rating: Running Time: 1:33 Release Date: 7/20/18 (limited) |
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Capsule review by Mark Dujsik | July 19, 2018 The spy at the center of Damascus Cover has been lying his entire life. The opening scenes of the movie have Ari (Jonathan Rhys Meyers), currently an agent for Mossad, detailing how easy it was to go from the lies of his youth in Germany to being an undercover agent for Israel's intelligence agency. At the start, there's the promise of a fascinating character study of a man coming to terms with a life that is, in a way, an act of deception. Along with the cynical finale, we get a picture of a man whose very life has been damaged and delayed by deceit. It's everything in between the beginning and the end of co-writer/director Daniel Zelik Berk's adaptation of Howard Kaplan's novel that loses sight of the intrigue of the nature of this character. In its stead, we get a complicated plot involving a lot of backstabbing, double-crosses, and bluffs, as Ari, disguised as a German businessman, tries to keep the Syrian government from uncovering an Israeli agent in deep cover in Damascus. He's there on orders from Miki (the late John Hurt), the head of Mossad, and the plan is somehow simultaneously simple and convoluted. Ari will win over a former Nazi (played by Jürgen Prochnow), get close to the man's Jewish housekeeper, and, from there, figure out how to get the agent, nicknamed "the Angel," out of the country before his cover is blown. Further complicating matters is Kim (Olivia Thirlby), an American reporter on assignment, with whom Ari gets into a love affair. The time period is 1989, as political tensions in Europe are fading and ones in the Middle East are on the rise. Like its early attention to the main character, Berk and Samantha Newton's screenplay establishes some tricky political observations and alliances, but also like the protagonist, the movie drops such specific intrigue for generic scenes of backroom dealings and revelations about certain characters' true allegiances. Yes, it's a lot of the usual spy games, and as solid as Meyers is as the man torn between lying for a living and actually taking a chance at living, Damascus Cover feels routine. The movie saves its best idea, which sees everything that has happened as an actual game with the lives of its most devoted players as expendable pawns, for the end. By that point, it's far too late. Copyright © 2018 by Mark Dujsik. All rights reserved. |
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