A House of Dynamite movie review: There is very little even the US can do when a nuclear missile is due to strike it in 30 minutes. That is the premise of this latest film by Kathryn Bigelow, who has been poking and probing America’s security assumptions for a while now. And, if you believe her and writer Noah Oppenheimer, one can be grateful that the future of the world (our very own house of dynamite) won’t rest solely on Donald Trump’s twitchy fingers.
In extraordinary minute detail, Bigelow examines such a scenario from the perspective of different characters who would be swept up in such a crisis – from a US Major managing a missile interception centre somewhere in deep Alaska, all the way up to POTUS. The ideological divide that runs through the heart of Washington is on display – from the Deputy NSA (Basso) advising caution, to the General urging quick action to display America’s strength.
Bigelow takes time out for her characters’ emotions, including the Captain (Ferguson) stealing in a mobile phone to warn her husband tearily, as she turns their child’s toy dinosaur in her hands, and – heartbreakingly – the Secretary of State (a marvellous Harris) trying to connect with his estranged daughter in what could be her final moments.
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As the scenario repeats from different angles, some of the tension that Bigelow builds dissipates. Elba’s POTUS, which is an unabashed throwback to the only other Black US President we know, is too much the man the world wants him to be and too little the man he is likely to be.
Lest we forget, as of Wednesday, the POTUS we have was boasting about the number of nuclear weapons the US has, and how the country would start testing them “immediately”.
A House of Dynamite movie director: Kathryn Bigelow
A House of Dynamite movie cast: Idris Elba, Rebecca Ferguson, Gabriel Basso, Jared Harris, Tracy Letts
A House of Dynamite movie rating: 3.5 stars
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