‘Finale’ puts dark history in conventional box
Although it has its merits, “Operation Finale” — which recounts the 1960 extraction of Adolf Eichmann from Argentina and his delivery to Jerusalem to stand trial — fails to measure up to the deep historical impact of the events it depicts. The Nazi monster Eichmann inspired Hannah Arendt’s epochal essay on the banality of evil, but the movie gives him the genre-film treatment.
The film’s central figure, in the sense that he gets more camera time than Eichmann, is Peter Malkin (Oscar Isaac), a real-life member of the crew of Israeli agents who grabbed Eichmann (Ben Kingsley) from a suburb of Buenos Aires and put him on an El Al flight. The movie begins at a time when the Israeli government, under David Ben-Gurion, is focused on the nation’s survival to the
point where it almost has to be talked into the mission to bring Eichmann, one of the architects of the final solution, to justice.
Argentina is depicted, almost to the point of caricature, as a suitable hiding place for the likes of Eichmann — hatred of Jews and sympathy for Hitler and his crew are barely kept below the surface. Director Chris Weitz badly overplays this reality in a scene of a meeting that ends with rabid Nazi sympathizers on their feet shrieking “Sieg Heil!”
Malkin, whose sister and her children were murdered by German soldiers, travels to Argentina with other agents, including a doctor (Mélanie Laurent) with whom he had a past relationship. I’m sorry to say this serves the purpose of cooking up some entirely unneeded romantic interest. There are tensions within the Israeli group, which is led by a man with whom Malkin has clashed before, and includes one figure so seething with the desire for revenge that it seems he might kill Eichmann the minute he’s captured.
Eichmann, working as a factory foreman and living under an assumed name, is finally snatched, and when the bloody-minded Argentine government learns about it, it launches a search for the captors. The film now becomes a clock-ticking thriller as the agents, especially Malkin, try to wheedle a signature out of the wily Eichmann on a document saying he’s willingly leaving Argentina. This is said to be a requirement for the cooperation of El Al, but it has the feeling of a plot gimmick.
Not only does it ratchet up the tension as the Argentines close in on the Israelis, but it also gives us a chance to see and hear Eichmann as he toys with the agents. Kingsley is impressive in the role, and succeeds in what he has publicly stated was his goal in the performance: to suggest the humanity, as well as the monstrosity, of his character. He gives glimmers of a man who could make his way in the higher reaches of the Nazi hierarchy, yet seems genuinely concerned about his wife and son.
Kingsley’s Eichmann knows that his capture amounts to a death sentence (and Eichmann was indeed hanged in 1962 after a trial that drew global attention) but resents being scapegoated — that’s his word — for all the crimes of Nazism. Of course this isn’t the last word in Eichmann portrayals, but — along with Isaac’s work — it’s probably the strongest part of the movie.
The selection of Weitz (“American Pie,” “The Golden Compass”) as director seems odd, and although this film is far from a disaster, it seems that the material is beyond him. The result is that “Operation Finale” has been pushed too far in the direction of a conventional Hollywood movie.