Los Angeles Times

Brothers face off in inept war story

- — Michael Rechtshaff­en

A risible misfire of a contempora­ry war drama, the low-budget “Unfallen” stands as an epic fail on all fronts.

The ham-fisted saga, codirected by Josh Hodgins and the single-named Dante, begins in early ’90s Tajikistan (courtesy of Washington state), where a pair of 7-year-old twin brothers are left orphaned by civil war, resulting in one of them being adopted by a Denver couple.

Fast-forward a decade, with grown-up, stone-faced Rustam (the film’s writer, James Nasimi) joining the U.S. Army and shipping off to Afghanista­n, where he ultimately comes up against his long-lost Talibantra­ined brother, Suhrob (also Nasimi), discoverin­g that the two still share fundamenta­ls aside from a pair of ridiculous beards.

Only slightly more convincing are the wobbly Middle Eastern accents that keep surrenderi­ng to their obvious American origins and the scenes with Michael Madsen as a corrupt U.S. general, which appear to have been air-dropped into the production at a later time and place.

Madsen’s understand­able desire to get in and out of this technicall­y inept mess as expedientl­y as possible is evidently shared by James Hong (the affectiona­tely irascible voice of Mr. Ping in the “Kung Fu Panda” movies), whose similarly top-billed presence amounts to mere minutes seated behind a desk.

Hopefully his chair was more comfortabl­e than the film’s painfully wooden dialogue.

“Unfallen.” Not rated. Running time: 1 hour, 37 minutes. Playing: Arena Cinelounge Sunset, Hollywood.

 ?? Indie Rights ?? DANTE, left, Ryan Poole and Michael Madsen in a drama in which twin brothers turn enemies.
Indie Rights DANTE, left, Ryan Poole and Michael Madsen in a drama in which twin brothers turn enemies.

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