KANDAHAR (2023) - Mark Reviews Movies

Kandahar, Open Road Films

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Review by Mark Dujsik | May 25, 2023

"Modern wars aren't meant to end," says Tom Harris (Gerard Butler), the protagonist of Kandahar. This man, an asset with the CIA currently performing covert operations in the Middle East, would know, and the idea of endless conflict is at the thematic core of this movie, written by Mitchell LaFortune and directed by Ric Roman Waugh. The unfortunate thing, though, is that the filmmakers have surrounded that cynical core with the trappings of a convoluted, generic chase story.

Most of that plot is set in Afghanistan, following the official withdrawal of United States military forces from the country after more than two decades of war. The confusion is baked into the setting, as American defense and intelligence operatives continue a secretive war, even as the current Taliban rule of Afghanistan tries to maintain its power with international alliances and against old foes, as well as even more extreme organizations that want control.

Waugh attempts to portray these outright conflicts and tenuous connections with a certain objective distance, because every party in this scenario seems on the verge of betraying another or making a new alliance that goes against the party's apparent principles. The only thing that matters is some kind of victory, although no one here seems to have a basic conception of what their team's victory would even look like.

The problem, then, isn't that LaFortune's plotting is too complicated and confusing, although it certainly is at times in a way that goes beyond the intentional depiction of the cluster of allies, foes, off-the-record connections, and unofficial conflicts happening in the backdrop. It's simply the fact of that backdrop being far more intriguing and worthy of examination than anything happening in the foreground of this story.

The basic plot does amount to a lengthy chase. Tom, in disguise as a utility worker within an Iranian city, is part of a top-secret CIA mission to destroy an underground nuclear facility. With that mission's success, our man in Iran is ready for a trip home to London for his daughter's high school graduation. Stopping his trip, though, is Roman (Travis Fimmel), an even more covert operative working for the Pentagon out of Dubai, who asks Tom for a favor. It's a mission in Afghanistan, which, if everything goes according to plan, Tom will be able to complete with just enough time to see his daughter get her diploma.

The specifics of the mission—apart from the involvement of former U.S. military translator Mo (Navid Negahban), who has moved to Baltimore with his surviving family after the withdrawal—aren't important, since it all goes wrong before the plan even begins. An in-country journalist (played by Nina Toussaint-White) is abducted by Iranian intelligence services following a leak from the Pentagon, and Tom's picture and alias are uncovered in the process. That sets the Iranians, looking for payback, and various organizations and governments looking to capture him on the hunt for Tom, who has to find a way to escape Afghanistan with Mo.

This basic plotting is simple and exists as a pretty transparent excuse, but that leaves a bigger question: To what end has LaFortune shaped this setup? With the initial onslaught and continuing introduction of various parties—from those in Iran, to the Taliban, to a local warlord, to a Pakistani intelligence agent who's skeptical of the alleged religious foundation of so much of the fighting—in this plot, one begins to think the movie might have something to say about or find something to explore within this mess of uncertainty.

There isn't much of a rationale for providing so many layers of external threat or potential alliances, beyond the fact that the uncertainty exists and makes things repeatedly difficult for Tom's attempt to flee. The movie primarily uses these ancillary players for assorted action sequences and moments of tension, such as when a way out is compromised by Mo's tragic past—a tragedy that almost feels like a cynical move on the filmmakers' part, if only because it provides another complication to the simplistic plot. As world-weary but immediately determined as Negahban is in the role, Mo never comes across as more than a pawn in this story—one with a personal mission that goes entirely unresolved and who gives Tom a chance to speak about how poorly the U.S. government treated other translators in the aftermath of the war.

That leaves us with the action sequences, which are varied—a car chase through a busy market, a siege on a Taliban fortress, a nighttime showdown with a helicopter in the middle of the desert—and staged by Waugh with a degree of skill. In other words, they function, even if a couple are entirely formulaic and that standoff with the chopper borders on ridiculous, but this is a story that promises more than a cross-country trip with occasional pauses for pursuits, firefights, and explosions.

To its credit, the movie's mournful tone, which is even allotted to some of Tom's foes, provides Kandahar with a feeling of defeatism in the face of so much political ambiguity. It's ultimately superficial, though, and that, unfortunately, can be said of much of the movie's specific plot and broader aims.

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