It has been a long eight years since the brilliant Kathryn Bigelow has directed a film, so A House of Dynamite has been one of my most anticipated of the year, especially with its cracking premise: At the White House, U.S. government officials scramble to deal with an incoming nuclear missile launched by a foreign power at the city of Chicago.
This is a tremendously absorbing movie. We are immediately drawn into the situation and the tension barely relents as the various government officials try to make sense of what is going on and ultimately the president has to decide whether to retaliate. That decision is made more complicated by a satellite failure that means that no one is sure who launched the attack. It could be Russia, China, or North Korea. That is a great plot point by writer Noah Oppenheim which just complicates things more and his dialogue feels pretty real throughout.
The film is split into three distinct acts where we see the same events from different perspectives, though, because the characters are interacting conversations from the other parts seep into the section that we are currently watching. That set up has drawn a lot of criticism, and, whilst I agree that it was the first part, the first 40 minutes that are the highpoint, all of it worked for me very effectively.
Bigelow’s fluid camerawork brings an urgency to proceedings and the outstanding cast is littered with famous faces. Rebecca Ferguson, a never better Jason Clarke, and Gabriel Basso really stand out. Idris Elba appears in the final segment as the president and it is re-assuring to see a fully functional human being, with a conscience, in that role!
A House of Dynamite has a similar premise to the all time classic Fail Safe, can be ranked almost alongside it and maintains Bigelow as one of the very few directors with a perfect record. It had a very brief cinema run and now can be seen on Netflix.
Rating: 9 out of 10