Official Synopsis
A Lebanese soldier (Bernard Curry, The Junction Boys, The Dish, Home and Away) stumbles upon a top-secret, Israeli base where he encounters an Israeli soldier (Oz Zehavi, Infiltration) and an American CIA agent (Tom Sizemore, Black Hawk Down, Saving Private Ryan, Heat, Natural Born Killers). A scuffle ensues and, in the melee, the center’s emergency lockdown mechanism is triggered. Realizing they are trapped for six hours, the sworn enemies must figure out how to not kill each other.
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The film starts by giving a brief and somewhat sketchy introduction to the three main players in the story. We meet an Australian-born Lebanese named Baz (Bernard Curry), who is on vacation with his wife and family, and who accidentally stumbles into an Israeli communication house. We also meet Ari (Oz Zehavi), who is being shuffled around in the Israeli army due to his lack of respect for authority and his quick temper. Finally, we are introduced to country-bumpkin, and CIA operative, Bob (Tom Sizemore), who is trying to make it the next 24 hours without incident, so that he can go home. All of these personalities come together under one roof when Baz accidentally closes the front door, that is time locked, to the communication center, which traps them all.
The first act is a bit shredded, meaning that the process in which all of the players intersect under one roof is a bit tough to believe, and just a tad all over the place. The film starts off on shaky ground when Baz, who gets lost on a patrol with his friend, and just happens upon the communication center where Bob and Ari are stationed. It’s incredibly tough to believe and accept that two war torn societies, super war torn, would have such a loosely guarded facility that someone could just literally walk into their house. I do understand that to make the second act work that you have to get Baz together with the other two characters, but it just seems so nonchalant and ‘WHOOPS! Where am I?’ sort of deal.
As soon as the door to the complex shuts, the personalities collide, and the main beef of the story starts to unravel in the second act. Baz is of Arab decent, while Ari is Jewish, which means both instantly hate each other. The remaining peacekeeper in the bunch, Bob, does his best to corral both guys into calming down and bringing it in. It takes some time, but eventually the men sit and talk/yell/discuss their own inner hatreds, and some misconceptions.
The second act really is where the issues arise, not with the movie, but with the characters. You get kind of an overview of what Arab and Jewish perception is to the other person. Baz explains to Ari why he hates him, while Ari holds back from kicking in Baz’s teeth. The tension and situation in the second act is amazingly thick, and somewhat understandable. The issue with the second act is and isn’t the content, though. The majority of the film is shot in this one location. It doesn’t change much and doesn’t offer up much flashback footage to truly give enough proper development for how each character arrived at their own point of hatred for the other. For example, Baz witnessed a car bombing in Tel Aviv, as well as persecution from the locals because he was Arab. Ari’s flashback shows him crying over the death of his sister from the hands of a terrorist. We honestly don’t get enough tragedy in Ari’s life, and I know that sounds weird, but building the hatred is key to understanding why Ari is the way he is. To warrant the type of aggression Ari puts forth at the beginning of act two, there has to be some relationship development and understanding with this character and his sister. Anyway, flashbacks aside, as well as proper character development, the discussion that eventually turns civil adds some much needed perspective on the thought process in the group. Lots of good information about how Arabs view Jewish folks and vice-versa drive the story where it needs to go. This is good stuff that works well for the film and carries what director Jac Mulder and writer Ziggy Darkish are trying to portray. It’s literally the best part of the movie.
What’s weird about the second act of the film is that Bob doesn’t give much perspective and doesn’t really interfere with Baz and Ari’s issues. He does play referee, but doesn’t throw his American hat into the ring to make him a firm part of the discussion. He is more comedy relief than anything else, which might be the proper viewpoint when it comes to the world looking at America. Come to think of it, his purpose might be perfect for the film.
Anyway, the third act starts concluding as the guys get proper ‘drugged out’ perspective (thank America for that). The ending kind of just lands on the ground like a feather and a last bit of comedy relief is introduced on the way out. The third act is just as messy as the first, but at least it’s entertaining and happy.
Overall, this type of tightly shot film probably belongs on the stage. The dialogue and the confinement of the characters sort of creates a tough and sometimes boring concept for the big screen. There are times where I would have liked to learn more about each character, especially Bob. There are times where some of the dialogue and discussion about the Arab/Jewish resentment could have used a bit more footage to illustrate what was going on, because the information was flowing like waves in a hurricane. Don’t get me wrong, this film makes me want to go online and catch up on how things started and why they are the way they are, which is probably a good side effect. In the meantime, I just wanted a bit more space, a bit more visual explanation and some more character development.