Operation Finale

"The banality of evil" ... Hannah Arendt The abduction of Adolph Eichmann in May 1960 Argentina is the stuff of thrillers, in the spirit of true-inspired films like Munich and Inglorious Basterds. What makes Operation Finale unique and watchable is the acting of Oscar Isaac as the primary captor, Peter Malkin, and Ben Kingsley as "the architect of the Holocaust." When the two are together, the screen heats up with truth and passion in a muted, underplayed power.

In an expert summer thriller directed by Chris Weitz and written by Matthew Orton, Isaac portrays a Nazi hunter along with Mossad operatives charged to perform the abduction; he carries a burden of memory for his sister lost with millions of other captured Jews. His portrayal is humane, sympathetic, and vengeful. Kingsley portrays a charming monster capable of civility and reason as he spars with Isaac about responsibility when like so many other Nazis he claims to have been taking orders.

Kingsley's Eichmann has minor mannerisms revealing a fastidious killer who can evidence love for his family although he eliminated millions with the nod of his head. His joke about Goebbels, Goring, and Hitler humanizes him, no doubt to the chagrin to more than a few in the audience.

Ever controlled, he converses with Peter as a caring neighbor might under better circumstances. Kingsley exudes the confidence and malignity necessary to be the architect.

Although I suspect the barely escaping plane at the end is as contrived as the airport race at the end of Munich, the heart of this true story is the dilemma all principals face when bringing justice to a wretch who deserves a bullet between the eyes before the long trial begins. Peter struggles with that demon as anyone would do.

Operation Finale, perhaps too seriously traditional, is another of the docudramas that draw us in even as we know the outcome. That's entertaining story telling about grim history. "The Holocaust was the most evil crime ever committed." Stephen Ambrose

It's 1960 Buenos Aires, Argentina. Teenager Sylvia Hermann falls for Klaus Eichmann. He tells her that he is raised by his uncle after his SS father was killed. Unbeknownst to them, her father is secretly a German Jew. The uncle is suspected to be Adolph Eichmann (Ben Kingsley), the architect of the Holocaust. When it's reported back to the Mossad, Rafi Eitan (Nick Kroll) insists on pursuing the fugitive despite reservations. Peter Malkin (Oscar Isaac) is a team leader. Hanna Elian (Mélanie Laurent) is the doctor. It's a daring operation to kidnap the Nazi and transport him to Israel for trial.

At first, I expected a caper movie. I expected laying out the scheme and overcoming some unexpected hurdles. For the first half, that's the movie and it's not that new. The Argentinian Nazi gathering is very creepy and there is an interesting history lesson. It's pretty good and then it turns into something better at the safe house. It becomes a psychological chess match and that's the more interesting battle. It's a simple good cop, bad cop situation but Ben Kingsley heightens it with his excellence. He's a master of acting. This reminds me a bit of Munich but this is superior.

This is the second or third film I've seen that dramatizes the events leading to the capture of Adolph Eichmann. However, this one focuses less on how they discovered this evil man hiding in Argentina and more on what happened after he was captured and before he was spirited off to Israel to face a trial for crimes against humanity.

Of course, such a film isn't going to be fun viewing but the film is not as intense and filled with much footage of the actions of this monster or the SS. As a result, it's probably a good film to show your older kids or teens...of course, provided you watch it with them and help explain the context for the real life drama.

Overall, very well made and worth seeing....and quite interesting.

An intelligent, if lugubrious, account of how Adolf Eichmann was captured in Buenos Aires and returned to Israel to stand trial. About the best you can say of Chris Weitz's "Operation Finale" is that it's a decent history lesson but a poor film with a miscast Ben Kingsley as Eichmann, (at the time the film was set Eichmann was 54 while Kingsley is 76 and looks it). As one of the men who did the actual capturing and who, in this film at least, is seen to form a kind of bond with his prisoner, Oscar Isaac isn't at all bad but everyone else in the cast is just some kind of pawn. What's lacking is any sense of urgency. I hate to say it but the film might have been better if it were less tasteful; it's almost as if everyone connected with the film were afraid to get their hands dirty so it's all handled with kid gloves. Material like this deserves better.

The story is too straightforward and streamlined. Too much of the film is trying to build tension over the success of the mission but the twists and set back all feel too slight and easily overcome. There are more dramatically interesting ways to tell this story and I think trying to fit it into a thriller mode was a mistake. Maybe a courtroom drama would have been a better fit but the plot keeps butting in when the film seems to be going in an interesting direction, i.e. the interplay between Peter and Adolf. The story isn't bad but it could have been so much more.

Fortunately, Kingsley and Isaac turn in some moving understated performances. Kingsley is especially chilling as Adolf and there is weird intertextual irony given his previous role in Schindler's List. Kingsley embodies the banality of evil and it utterly works. Isaac was a good choice to carry the movie.

This film was disappointing. It could have been so much more.