The Mauritanian (2021)

Directed by Kevin Macdonald. Starring Tahar Rahim, Jodie Foster, Benedict Cumberbatch, Shailene Woodley, Zachary Levi, David Fynn, Pope Jerrod, Daniel Janks, Denis Ménochet, Saamer Usmani, Corey Johnson. [R]

After being arrested and held at Guantánamo Bay for years without being told what crimes he is being charged with, presumed 9/11 co-organizer Mohamedou Ould Slahi (Rahim) is provided counsel in the form of American lawyer Nancy Hollander (Foster), and she wades through a mountain of case files—many of them “redacted to death”—to piece together his often torturous experience at the hand of his jailers. An engaging dramatic strategy can’t break through the surface examination of true events, as contradictory about its subject as it is condemnatory about Bush-era foreign policy and its heinous treatment of detainees. Some of the acting is subtly layered—Rahim is an engaging lead whose humanity tends to shimmer like a mirage to the eyes of outsiders, and Cumberbatch exceeds the trite on-page limitations of his role as the prosecutor whose confidence is eventually shaken—but there are too many gaps in the characterizations that never get filled, including clarity behind Slahi’s background and the circumstances that led to him being targeted and arrested in the first place. Director Macdonald doesn’t overplay the emotional hand, but the locations, set-ups, and story beats outside the walls of the detention center couldn’t be more formula-bound. The real-life Slahi makes an appearance at the end, and also co-produced (as did Cumberbatch).

65/100