I love Ben Kingsley. I feel he is one of the greatest actors alive today and most films that he is involved in are fantastic, particularly biopics. This one, however, kind of falls flat.
Featuring a wonderful combo of Kingsley and Oscar Isaac, Operation Finale is the true story about the location and arrest of Adolf Eichmann from Buenos Aires, where he was in hiding following the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War 2. The world sought to find and capture him to stand trial for war crimes in Israel for his involvement in "The Final Solution."
Just so you know "The Final Solution" is the Holocaust and this particular Adolf is considered to be one the major architects of the entire systematic slaughter of European Jews during World War 2.
As one would expect, Kingsley's portrayal of Eichmannis stellar as is Oscar Isaac's portrayal of Peter Malkin (an Israeli secret agent and one of the men instrumental in capturing Eichmann.) However, the overall film progresses very slowly and viewers find themselves very bored during the movie's more than 2 hours of showtime.
Because the story itself isn't very exciting (how can extradition really be exciting?) The story had to be embellished quite a bit and they even introduced a completely fictional love story into the mix... just to pass the time a bit better. I think that was their intention with the love story, but for most viewers it just seemed dumb and unnecessary.
The above picture pretty much embodies a vast majority of the film: Kingsley and Isaac sitting on a bed talking to one another. That is 60% of the movie and wow does it drag on.
The film also received criticism for depicting Argentina's government not just as sympathetic to Eichmann, but showing them of being supportive of Nazism and actively attempting to protect him from facing justice. I actually have no idea if Argentina was supportive on the Nazis, i am just repeating what I read.
I think the most interesting part of the film for me was the flashbacks to Nazi Germany as recounted by Eichmann during interviews. Also, the fact that Nick Kroll is playing the only non-comedic role I have ever seen him in was pretty cool but you know, a bit tough to take him seriously... maybe he'll do some more stuff like this and prove his worth as a dramatic actor. This did not change how boring and slow-paced the film was overall.
This movie has higher marks than I feel it deserves in the online community but I think a lot of that has to do with the fact that it is kind of taboo to "downvote" anything about this subject matter.
