Mark Reviews Movies: THE OATH (2018)

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Review by Mark Dujsik | October 18, 2018

These are divisive times, and our movies are still figuring out how to deal with them. The Oath, a dark comedy with a premise that would have seemed outlandish satire just two years ago, directly confronts the political divide in the United States. The film's time period is unspecified, and the names of the politicians in the background are either unspoken or fictional. Even so, this is a comedy about the here and now. Let's hope it's not about the future.

The film comes from writer/director Ike Barinholtz, making his feature directorial debut in rather ambitious fashion. The premise involves a loyalty oath to both the United States and the President. For effect, it's better to mention the President second in the description, but the man comes first in the text of that oath, as one would expect from the ego of any person in power who would devise such a thing.

The text is the first thing that we see, and the phrasing is so straightforward and relatively inoffensive that the thing is doubly wrong. Who could argue with pledging one's loyalty to one's country and, by extension, the person who's the nominal head of its government? Aren't you already loyal to the country by way of being a citizen?

That's the simple argument for the oath, but from there, some insidious assumptions follow. If you don't sign the oath, which is perfectly within your rights, why aren't you signing it? Do you hate this country, which affords you the rights not to sign such a thing? Do you have ill intentions toward the U.S. or the man at the head of the government? Are you a patriot or a traitor? If you're the former, just sign the oath to prove it. If you don't sign, well, there's the latter description.

It feels strange to be discussing the background of a politically charged satire in terms that are only mildly hypothetical, but such are the times and the political atmosphere of the country right now. In that loyal oath, we're reminded of—and Barinholtz must have been inspired by—the current President, who made a pledge of loyalty to him a mainstay of his campaign rallies. The film doesn't overtly address the current administration, although, at this point, it wouldn't be much of a surprise if they established something akin to the film's centerpiece of debate.

That gives the film a topical punch, even if its intentions and methods are broader than the specifics of the current climate. It's primarily about husband and wife Chris (Barinholtz) and Kai (Tiffany Haddish), who have expressed opposition to signing the oath since it was first announced. The deadline is the day after Thanksgiving. There are no official punishments for refusing or failing to sign (The government is offering a tax credit to those who do), but the oath has created a deep divide in the country. There are protests that are turning violent, and the Citizen's Protection Unit, a new branch of the Department of Homeland Security, has been accused of detaining and disappearing prominent opponents of the oath.

All of this plays out in the background in the days leading up to Thanksgiving, as Chris' family arrives in waves to celebrate the holiday. His parents, Hank (Chris Ellis) and Eleanor (Nora Dunn), arrive first, with constant reminders to keep politics out of the holiday discussions. They're followed by Chris' brother Pat (Jon Barinholtz, the writer/director/star's real-life brother) and his girlfriend Abbie (Meredith Hagner). All of them implicitly agree with or, at least, don't disagree with the oath, and Chris' only ally is his sister Alice (Carrie Brownstein), who arrives with her kids and husband (played by Jay Duplass), who's restricted to bed or the bathroom with the flu (In retrospect, he's kind of the lucky one).

Making the ensuing conflict exclusively about the family's political divisions would be easy, and Barinholtz mostly avoids the simple flinging of insults and obvious arguments. They're present here, of course, and often funny, but the film's real target is obsession. As neutered as Chris' parents are and as obnoxious as his brother (and the girlfriend) may be, it's Chris—as well as his inability to let go of the news of the moment, his apparently instinctual need to take everything personally, and his tendency toward turning everything into a black-or-white situation—who takes the brunt of the film's jabs.

He's as irritating in his fixation as Pat and Abbie are in their quickness to judge from an implicitly authoritarian right-wing perspective. There's no debate or discussion with him—only an argument that quickly can turn ugly. Everyone—even his wife and sister—is a potential enemy in his mind, if someone dares to disagree with him. He's incapable of seeing what's in front of him, no matter how many times Kai tries to put things in a pragmatic perspective.

Things turn sinister on Friday, as a pair of government agents (played by John Cho—very funny—and Billy Magnussen) arrive to interrogate Chris. We're plunged into what the reality of such a scenario would be, only amplified to an extreme degree. The humor almost all but disappears, but it's replaced, quite efficiently, with a sense of mounting dread.

It's necessary, in a way. While Chris is wrong in his attitude and approach, he is quite right about the oath and everything that has happened because of it. To undermine or deny that would be to argue that it's better to keep one's head in the sand, if only to make the holidays more tenable. The lesson of The Oath, though, is to take everything in moderation—without becoming an unthinking moderate.

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