Capturing a monster
Agents attempt to bring Nazi Adolf Eichmann to justice in ‘Operation Finale’
Not as artful or as powerful as Steven Spielberg's underrated “Munich” (2005), a film it resembles, Chris Weitz's “Operation Finale” has it virtues, chief among them gripping performances from Oscar Isaac (“Star Wars”) as a Mossad agent with much to prove and Academy Award winner Ben Kingsley as “an architect of the Final Solution” Adolf
Eichmann.
The film, scripted by newcomer
Matthew Orton, tells the fact-based story of the 1960 Israeli attempt to capture and transport Eichmann, who escaped detention at the end of World War II, back to Israel for trial. Eichmann has been hiding in plain sight with his wife, Vera (Greta Scacchi), and children among many other Nazis, who also fled a collapsing Nazi Germany, and their supporters, including a local Catholic priest, in postwar Argentina.
Peter Malkin (Isaac) is a young Mossad agent, who has most recently led a mission that ended with the mistaken killing of a former Nazi in Austria, who was not Eichmann. A young, single man in Israel, Peter has recently broken off a relationship with fellow agent Hannah Elian (Melanie Laurent, “Inglourious Basterds”) much to the dismay of his Holocaust survivor mother with whom he regularly has dinner. Peter is haunted by memories of his beloved older sister Fruma (Rita Pauls), who was hanged from a tree before his eyes in a forest by the Nazis.
After being given a pep talk by none other than Israeli Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion (Simon Russell Beale), Peter and his cohorts, including Hannah, mission leader Isser Harel (a very good Lior Raz) and others, fly to Argentina undercover and find Eichmann with the help of Sylvia Hermann (Hayley Lu Richardson), a beautiful young woman, and her elderly father, Lotar Hermann (Peter Strauss).
This part of the story, including an abortive romance between Sylvia and Eichmann's son Klaus (Joe Alwyn, “Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk”), is not well handled and appears to have been trimmed. The El Al flight to take Eichmann and the Israelis back to Israel has been delayed and the team must hide in a safe house along with a captive and restrained Eichmann for several days and must somehow get him to sign an agreement to fly to Israel to be tried in court.
With the local Nazis and Argentine police hot on their heels, the countdown is on, and Peter believes he can persuade Eichmann to sign by establishing a relationship with him. The result is not so much cat-and-mouse as an out-ofstep tango. Think of Kingsley's demonic Eichmann as his “Sexy Beast 2.” Nick Kroll is solid as another one of the Israeli agents.
But Kingsley's excessive makeup and dye job, recurring images of Peter painting portraits of a dark forest and the opacity of the relationship between Peter and Hannah further contribute to the sense that “Operation Finale” is less than great and that as a true spy thriller it is pretty weak tea. Still, Isaac and Kingsley put on a good show.