Operation: Finale (2018)

rating: ****

the story: The capture of Adolf Eichmann in Argentina by Mossad agents.

review: One of my favorite historical dramas, in fact one of my favorite movies in general, is Spielberg's Munich (2005), a triumph in pretty much every regard.  Operation Finale is a very different movie, but both share the idea of horror at the world their characters are forced to inhabit, which in both cases is the real world, and as such are both all the more compelling for it.  Operation Finale is a story of the Holocaust, but instead of focusing on the Holocaust itself (such as with, say, Schindler's List), it centers on the decades that lay ahead, of the people who were affected by it, or in Eichmann's case, helped make it happen.

The most stunning thing about the film is how Eichmann himself is presented.  Ben Kingsley is a famously charismatic chameleon.  He brings that quality to Eichmann, whom we catch up with already ensconced in his literally new life (with a new name and family) in Argentina.  We see an Argentina where Nazis still exist, holding rallies with the same hateful bluster, something history has tended to gloss over (the musical Evita covers a version of events).  The movie is mostly concerned with Eichmann himself, and the Mossad agent, played by Oscar Isaac, who finds himself in the unlikely position of convincing Eichmann to agree to stand trial in Israel.

Isaac has emerged in recent years as a reliable film presence, still searching for a truly breakout lead performance despite a wealth of interesting roles behind him.  He often appears as ambiguous figures, which is perhaps what allows him to pull off this particularly tricky part.  His scenes with Kingsley are the heart of the movie, and both actors deliver.  Will Eichmann agree to stand trial, despite every attempt to justify himself as a mere bureaucrat (in so many words)?

Director Chris Weitz (a bit of a chameleon himself, with a track record as varied as About a Boy and Twilight Saga: New Moon) is able to find the right balance, and is wise enough to give Isaac roadblocks, but remove them as necessary.  This is a rare trait in such storytelling, often wrongly pursued with the belief that increased use of roadblocks increases the drama, when it only proves how little faith there is in other elements.

(Among the supporting cast is Melanie Laurant, who appeared in another WWII movie, albeit a far different one, Inglourious Basterds.)

By the time Isaas is just another observer, as we glimpse the trial itself, we already know that Operation Finale has done exactly what it set out to accomplish: give audiences the outrage of the Holocaust at exactly the banal level Eichmann himself was said to represent.