Green Zone

Rating: **

The other Iraq war film this week couldn’t be more different. “Inspired” by a book by Rajiv Chandrasekaran,the former Baghdad bureau chief of The Washington Post,the film really isn’t about Iraq — the broad lamentations of its American protagonist,Chief Warrant Officer Miller (Damon),and his “concerned” Iraqi sidekick notwithstanding. It purports to be about the WMD controversy,and whether Saddam actually had any. However,Green Zone — deriving its name from the secure zone in Baghdad from where the US forces operate — could really be another James Bourne adventure (Greengrass directed two of them,Damon starred in all three),with him unravelling a government conspiracy,singlehandedly. Discounting a bumbling CIA operative played by Gleeson.

The conspiracy concerns the WMDs on the premise of which the war was launched. And in this film,the secret is kept by a Pentagon official (Kinnear) and is just waiting to be exposed by Miller. And the latter launches forth,ignoring,among others,a directive straight from the White House. Isn’t it ironic that one of the film’s “meaningful” expressions is: “Don’t be naive.”