The Wall (2017)

Directed by: Doug Liman | 90 minutes | drama, thriller, war | Actors: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, John Cena, Laith Nakli

A very simple story set-up can sometimes lead to an intriguing and intense film. Characters and locations are scarce, which can make for a highly personalized end product (movies like ‘Reservoir Dogs’ and ‘Locke’ come to mind). However, it can go in a completely different direction: a lack of variety is a danger to any story, the risk that such a scenario is boring and monotonous is always present. Director Doug Liman, who we know from intense action films such as ‘The Bourne Identity’ and ‘Edge of Tomorrow’, takes a risk and chooses a subject for his film ‘The Wall’ (the war in Iraq) that is very easily interesting. keep should be. At least you would think so.

So the war in Iraq. But where Liman often goes for the big action scenes, he keeps it small in ‘The Wall’ as said. We follow two American soldiers. Sergeant Matthews (John Cena) and Sergeant Isaac (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) are on a mission across the desert. But when Matthews is shot by a sniper, Isaac must quickly take cover in an open field. He finds a wall to hide behind. From there he will have to keep Matthews talking and try to take out the sniper himself.

The actors try their best, that’s for sure. Johnson is on top form as always and John Cena is the next in a long line of wrestlers who are proving to be able to act. However, it is not about excelling, in nothing really. And that’s quite a shame, because films in such a small format have to make a big impression to remain interesting. In ‘The Wall’ it all remains a bit superficial and at a certain point it even gets a bit boring.

And that’s pretty impressive for a film that’s less than ninety minutes long and also from a capable director like Doug Liman. This could have been a very smooth film, which also had something to say about the rather controversial war in Iraq. But despite the fact that it’s all kept quite personal, that’s definitely not where the strength of ‘The Wall’ lies.

The film is by no means unwatchable. It’s still well shot and as said, the two lead actors are at home in their roles. There are even times when the intensity is cranked up a bit only to fall back into boring padding. Films that are so character-driven and small in scale are often open to interpretation and provoke intense debriefing. But ‘The Wall’ will probably be forgotten sooner.