Aaron Taylor-Johnson John Cena Laith Nakl
There are some movies that make you wonder why
they’re made at all. For example,
what is the reasoning behind The Wall? Even though it’s about war, there is
very little action, no heroics, and instead has a bizarre situation where an
American soldier talks to an armed Iraqi citizen who has hacked into his radio
system, is watching his every move, and has plans to sabotage a rescue. The Iraqi is a schoolteacher who has
good reasons to hate Americans and deeply resents their invasion of his
country. The odd part is his
sadistic streak, where he keeps trying to engage Isaac (Taylor-Johnson) in a
conversation about himself, his family, and the references made by Isaac and
the other soldier, Sergeant Matthews (Cena) when they were standing watch to
see if anyone was around a bombed out school, unaware that they were being
observed. In the contrived plot,
the attempts at conversation seem solely for the purpose of taunting Isaac
later with things about himself he feels bad about. It’s a weird kind of psychological warfare resembling an
interrogation that encourages the subject to reveal things about himself that
may be compromising, and in this case, it is alternated with predictions of
what the Iraqi is going to do to Isaac (e.g., peel the skin of his face and
pluck his eyes out). He constantly
reminds Isaac of the power he has over him.
Unlike the film Locke, where Tom Hardy talks on the phone the entire time while he
drives a BMW, riveting the viewer’s attention, The Wall is tedious, nerve-wracking in a bad way, and shows
experienced American soldiers behaving unwisely and hysterically. Not that that doesn’t happen, but to
show it without apparent purpose in a film with essentially only three characters…? The dialog—when you can understand it,
what with the sound of the howling wind, radio static, and actors speaking
inarticulately—is sorely lacking in building up intrigue and interest. Maybe it’s common for soldiers to use
the f-word multiple times in every sentence just like gangsters, but I find
that hard to believe. Most of all,
in a movie it is a waste of words that gives us very little information.
My final beef with this film is the absence of
background information about a mysterious man named Juba, an ominous figure
with the appellation of “Angel of Death.”
Is this the sadistic figure who taunted Isaac for the entire film? Revealing more about him early on might
have made the film more interesting.
Whereas Aaron Taylor-Johnson was given high
praise for his performance in Nocturnal
Animals, I think the script has let him down in this production. He did as well as he could with what he
was given, but this is not a scene-stealing part like Ray Marcus, a real baddie
on an isolated Texas highway. John
Cena is essentially wasted as the other main character in that he is taken out
of the action early on and given very little to do.
This is a movie with potential that,
unfortunately, misses the mark.
Director Doug Liman and writer Dwain Worrell will need to go a long way
in creating a story that will engage audiences and have more meaningful
content.
This war picture has lots of tension
without excitement.
