Determining how best to respond to an attack is a complex endeavor, and one that invites its share of known and unknown consequences. The concept of simply letting something happen without any kind of resulting answer may be seen as weak, but striking back with more force, especially if the enemy’s identity isn’t one hundred percent certain, can create an entirely new conflict or escalate a simmering one. A House of Dynamite investigates this gripping uncertainty with a high-stakes thriller that offers multiple points of view that add more information, if still a deliberately incomplete picture, to a story with many possible endings, none of them good.
A missile is launched from an unknown spot in the Pacific Ocean, and it’s showing up on radar with precious little time to impact. Among the many people working to determine its origin, its likely target, and, most importantly, what to do to stop it, are Captain Olivia Walker (Rebecca Ferguson) in the White House Situation Room, Secretary of Defense Reid Baker (Jared Harris), STRATCOM General Anthony Brody (Tracy Letts), and Deputy National Security Advisor Jake Baerington (Gabriel Basso), filling in for his boss, who’s out for the day for medical reasons. As the clock ticks and the President (Idris Elba) becomes involved, there’s still nowhere near enough information available, making a decision on if – and how – to retaliate next to impossible to make.
This is the first feature film in eight years from director Kathryn Bigelow, who found Oscar success with The Hurt Locker and Zero Dark Thirty. Unrelated to those two but described as the finale to an unofficial trilogy, A House of Dynamite is also a thriller with heavy military content, but it looks and feels completely different. Events unfold essentially in real time, and any character development happens as something else is occurring rather than through separate conversations or expository scenes. Anyone who appreciates those films should find something worthwhile here too, but it’s much more of a propulsive, suspense-driven political thriller than a more meditative treatise on war and what it takes from people.
The construction of this film is also unlike Bigelow’s most prominent past projects since it presents events focused on Walker as the protagonist through the countdown to detonation then resets the clock, tacking the same story from a different angle introduced by a quote that someone will say within the span of that segment, ultimately offering a third and final perspective to zoom out even more. It’s a very nuts-and-bolts approach that speaks to screenwriter Noah Oppenheim’s past experience as president of NBC News, well aware of how the run-up to a crisis plays out and the many factors and players that can either aid or exacerbate it before the general public even knows anything is happening.
Bigelow has assembled a formidable ensemble packed with talent, giving great care to casting even with much more minor roles like those played by rising stars Kaitlyn Dever and Brittany O’Grady. Harris, Letts, Moses Ingram, and Greta Lee are particularly well-used in their parts, and Ferguson is a strong anchor for the film’s first third, compellingly portraying someone wholly committed to her job who’s still able to feel the weight of what’s about to happen. Elba only appears late in the film, offering an unpolished and weary performance that conveys the gravity of this fast-moving situation and just how unprepared he feels as a single powerful person to deal with it.
This film arrives at a fragile moment for the world where this is great discord to be found in so many places and conflicts that take many lives on an all-too-frequent basis. This film touches on the ethics of responding to an unknown assailant and potentially making things exponentially worse but doesn’t arrive at any one conclusion of what’s right or wrong. The breathless experience of watching it not once but three times offers numerous points of access and emotion that should draw audiences in, particularly if they’re seeing it on a big screen. As a streaming watch on Netflix, this film should still demand viewers’ attention but will be at its most effective with no distractions or breaks, emulating the inescapability of this fast-moving, involving worst-case-scenario thriller loaded with tension.
Movie Rating: 8/10
