For a movie about capturing the Nazi responsible for the final solution, this was pretty mundane. There is some very compelling history behind the story of Operation Finale. Oscar Isaac plays Peter Malkin, an Israeli spy who leads a team to Buenos Aires, Argentina in order to capture Adolf Eichmann (Ben Kingsley), so he can stand trial in Israel for his crimes.
The film is written by Matthew Orton and directed by Chris Weitz, known for his work on films like American Pie, About A Boy, and the second Twilight film. It’s his most ambitious directorial effort to date, and it’s clear that everyone involved has the best of intentions, Oscar Isaac even shares his first producer credit, but it doesn’t quite come together in a way that’s as powerful as it obviously intended it to be.
It’s not for a lack of trying though. The film is handsomely crafted, filled with appropriate early 60s details, and a sense of place with the limited time we spend outside of dark rooms and dirty hallways. The score by Alexandre Desplat is lovely, cinematographer, Javier Aguirresarobe, creates some striking imagery, and it’s formalist filmmaking is mostly solid. The only real problem comes from the fact that the film lacks a sense of urgency to what should be a consistently tense and exciting experience.
Throughout the film, I was reminded of another film that dealt with very similar beats, but to a much greater effect, not Judgment at Nuremberg or even Munich, it was Argo. That film has its own set of issues, but the suspense, liveliness, and breathless filmmaking is not among them. They are both films that deal with spies going into another country in order to sneak individual(s) out, and they share moments that are practically identical. However, Operation Finale doesn’t grab you like it should, it doesn’t play with its setup anymore than it needs to, and it simply follows all the beats the way you would imagine they would be played out.
There is one aspect where the film succeeds in spades, and it’s exactly what you think it is – the performances. Of course, there’s solid work from supporting players like Lior Raz, Mélanie Laurent, Nick Kroll, Joe Alwyn, Haley Lu Richardson, and Michael Aronov. But the real stars are Oscar Isaac and Ben Kingsley, and they are magnetic. There’s a delight in just seeing these two in a room, going back and forth with each other. When these two are alone together and simply having a conversation, the film comes to life in a way that it just wasn’t any scene prior.
There’s a whole section of the film devoted to an interrogator trying to get Eichmann to sign a document that essentially says he consents to standing trial in Israel, as opposed to Germany or any other country, and Malkin finds himself attempting to get the signature by simply letting him speak. In these moments, we also get a deeper glimpse of Malkin’s character, and how the death of a sister during the holocaust impacted him and how it could potentially impact the mission, given how close he makes himself with Eichmann. It’s not the most deep dynamic I’ve ever seen, but it’s the one thing that grounds all the loaded historical importance into something more human, and more personal.
If Operation Finale could hone in on those personal elements in a more effective way, we might have a winner here. As is, it’s just a generic historical film that feels like it was only made to be shown in schools when the substitute teacher is brought in. It’s finely crafted, but it’s mostly inoffensively bland and lifeless, which is certainly a far cry from being bad, but it fails to evoke any strong feeling, and considering the relevancy of Nazis today, that’s a major misstep. This story deserves better, and perhaps it will get another shot in the future. Two genuinely good performances just isn’t quite enough to save the film. It’s enough to make it watchable, but for a dramatization of what is easily one of the biggest moments in Israeli history, the film makes it feel like a mere footnote.