A Conspiracy Theorist's Delight

Rating: 5/10 (20 August 2017)

If you're into conspiracy theories, then this movie is definitely for you! This is the conspiracy theory to end all conspiracy theories. It seems to involve people in all walks of life. The military is involved. There's a senator. The FBI is playing a part. Local police officers are a part of this. The wealthy are definitely in on it. It's huge. One problem with the scenario is that I never quite was able to put my finger on exactly what the conspiracy was. The movie starts with a supposed American peace-keeping mission in Ethiopia going badly wrong. But from there - while Ethiopia is always front and centre - the conspiracy seems to widen and it seems to be about more than Ethiopia. The movie just started with Ethiopia. It's there that we're introduced to the character of Bob Lee Swagger (a name you have to love) - who's played by Mark Wahlberg. Swagger survives the debacle in Ethiopia, but his friend and partner doesn't and Swagger - filled with guilt - becomes a recluse back home. Then he's recruited to help stop an assassination attempt on the president (except that it really isn't) and ends up being framed for the killing of the "Archbishop of Ethiopia" who was appearing with the president. I didn't really get the point of making the Archbishop of Ethiopia the target of the plot - unless it was to somehow imply that the Catholic Church was also involved in the conspiracy? I thought ti would have been more powerful if it had been perhaps the President of Ethiopia who was killed. Also, the scenes toward the end of the movie portraying Swagger's meeting with the director of the FBI where he clears his name seemed unlikely. At the very least, it was too easy. Just as unlikely was the meeting on the snow-capped mountain. You have to see that one to really understand it.
So it's a kind of convoluted and ill-defined conspiracy, the point of which as far as I could tell was to make the rich richer? And what seem to be the climactic scenes (the two I described above) kind of sputter along unbelievably. There's certainly a lot of action in this, and it's not dull. Just a bit fuzzy around the edges if that makes any sense. I didn't really think that there was a need to develop a romance between Swagger and his late partner's widow Sarah. That seemed just too cliché for me. The performances were pretty good. Wahlberg was fine, and so was Kate Mara as Sarah and Michael Pena as the FBI agent who figures out that something's not right and ends up on Swagger's side. I did appreciate seeing veteran actors Ned Beatty as the entirely corrupt senator whose life and career seem to revolve around this conspiracy, and Danny Glover as the "Colonel" who recruits Swagger.
If you're really into conspiracy theories, this certainly gives you one to remember. If you're not - well, it's not a bad time waster anyway. (5/10)