The Mauritanian (Review) – A Noble But Messy Legal Thriller

DIRECTOR: Kevin Macdonald

CAST: Jodie Foster, Tahar Rahim, Shailene Woodley, Benedict Cumberbatch, Zachary Levi, Saamer Usmani, Langley Kirkwood, Corey Johnson, David Fynn, Matthew Marsh, Meena Rayann, Andre Jacobs, Robert Hobbs

RUNNING TIME: 129 mins

CERTIFICATE: 15

BASICALLY…: Mohamedou Ould Slahi (Rahim), who has been imprisoned for years without charge by the U.S. government, fights to regain his freedom…

NOW FOR THE REVIEW…

This review of The Mauritanian was conducted as part of the Glasgow Film Festival 2021.

Numerous films have been made about the horrendous treatment of prisoners at the notorious Guantanamo Bay, from the Oscar-winning documentary Taxi to the Dark Side to controversial segments from Kathryn Bigelow’s Zero Dark Thirty (even Harold and Kumar satirised the US base in Cuba during their second film, aptly titled Harold and Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay), and like those examples, The Mauritanian does not hold back on its brutal depiction of torture methods and psychological warfare that took place on that base.

It’s definitely not comfortable watching – cos, well, it’s torture – but director Kevin Macdonald’s film is able to hold ground steadily enough, even though it’s undeniably a bit of a mess.

The main figure of the story is Mohamedou Ould Slahi (Tahar Rahim), a native of Mauritania who, mere months after 9/11, is detained and held in Guantanamo Bay without charge, based merely on flimsy connections to Osama Bin Laden (a distant relative once tried to call him on what might have been Bin Laden’s satellite phone). After years of detainment, his case is brought to the attention of defence attorney Nancy Hollander (Jodie Foster) and her associate Teri Duncan (Shailene Woodley), who decide to represent Salahi in court and prove that his imprisonment is unlawful. Meanwhile, the prosecution is led by military lawyer Stuart Couch (Benedict Cumberbatch), who has a personal motive for convicting Slahi since a good friend of his was killed during the attack on the Twin Towers, which Slahi is accused of being a key figure of. Both sides of the case are affected in different ways by Slahi’s written testaments, which detail his disturbing treatment at the hands of US soldiers on the base.

Despite being the titular Mauritanian and the person who everything is revolving around, Slahi often feels like a supporting character in his own movie. Much of the film is spent either with Jodie Foster’s character going through endless folders of evidence, or Benedict Cumberbatch – who’s also credited as a producer – going through an arc that sees him evolve from ruthless and dedicated prosecutor to questioning his own loyalty to the US legal system, and given how compelling the real-life story of Mohamedou Ould Slahi is, the decision to mostly show the least interesting parts of that story is certainly an odd one. It’s something that stands out more whenever we actually do get to see what his life is like whilst locked up in Guantanamo Bay, when the visuals morph from standard widescreen into a grainier and more artsy 4:3 aspect ratio, because it’s in these moments when we see that there is a really powerful, genuinely effective human drama buried somewhere underneath (potentially a 12 Years A Slave-esque odyssey of this one man’s multi-year journey through prosecution and cruel mistreatment). Instead, though, they’re mere vignettes sprinkled throughout a much more pedestrian legal drama, which isn’t bad necessarily but could have been a lot more compelling than it actually is.

Macdonald’s film more or less plays out like a typical legal thriller, with many montages of lawyers digging through mountains of boxes of evidence, challenging said evidence when all of it is redacted, going back and forth on their belief in their client’s innocence, and uncovering conspiracies that could go as far up as the White House. That’s not so much on Macdonald himself, because the film is well-made enough to allow his passion for the project to shine through, but more on the writers who can’t seem to have compiled a script that gives this real case the weight and balance that it deserves. It’s a script that’s all over the place, jolting from one timeline to another (sometimes in the middle of someone’s important testimony) and rarely settling down when things start to become clearer; it can be easy to get confused at several points, because certain things are revealed out of chronological order right in the middle of another important scene that takes place within the same timeframe, which only adds to the confusion when you’re trying to watch the film without straying too much from what it’s trying to get across.

The one truly solid part of the film is Tahar Rahim’s incredible performance as Slahi; though he is not as central a figure as the film thinks he is, Rahim shines in every single scene he has in the film, in a powerful and resonant display of someone who, despite facing the absolute worst treatment anyone could ever imagine while in a hellhole like Guantanamo Bay, retains his humanity and hope for a freer future. Most of the rest of the cast do fine work too, including Jodie Foster who does good work despite not much to her on-screen character, and Benedict Cumberbatch who slightly stumbles through his heavy Southern accent but has some strong moments throughout the movie as well, but others like Zachary Levi (as a military operative that Cumberbatch frequently bombards for access to classified information) and especially Shailene Woodley are largely wasted here, with the latter suddenly disappearing from the movie altogether before resurfacing long enough for you to forget she was even in the film at all.

The Mauritanian is digestible enough, although your stomach may churn during its lengthy torture sequences (which, again, can be difficult to watch), but overall it’s rather messy as a narrative to properly convey this story on film. If, perhaps, there was far greater focus on the Mauritanian himself, instead of all the less interesting legal elements, then this could have been something really intriguing. Instead, it’s just okay, which is far less than this story deserves.

SO, TO SUM UP…

The Mauritanian is a noble but messy legal drama where, despite committed performances by the likes of Jodie Foster, producer Benedict Cumberbatch and especially Tahar Rahim as the titular prisoner, the script cannot find the balance to deliver the necessary emotion needed to make this story more interesting.

The Mauritanian will be available to stream exclusively in the UK on 1st April 2021, only on Amazon Prime Video.

[the_ad id=”14415″]

Did you like this review? Want to know when the next one comes out?

Sign up to our e-mail service today, and get our latest reviews and previews sent straight to your inbox!

Search from over ten years of movies here:

Other recent reviews:

Silver Haze (2023, dir. Sacha Polak)

A nurse embarks on a rocky relationship with her patient…

The Sweet East (2023, dir. Sean Price Williams)

A young teen goes on a bizarre odyssey after separating from her school trip…

Shirley (2024, dir. John Ridley)

In 1972, trailblazing Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm runs for President…

Road House (2024, dir. Doug Liman)

A former UFC fighter takes a new job as a bouncer at a Florida roadhouse…

Late Night with the Devil (2024, dirs. Cameron & Colin Cairnes)

A Halloween-themed episode of a late-night talk show goes devilishly wrong…

Baltimore (2024, dirs. Joe Lawlor and Christine Molloy)

A wealthy heiress turned IRA activist leads a daring art heist…

Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire (2024, dir. Gil Kenan)

A team of old and new Ghostbusters combat an icy new supernatural threat…

Brightwood (2023, dir. Dane Elcar)

A couple find themselves trapped in a time warp during a morning jog…

Robot Dreams (2024, dir. Pablo Berger)

A lonely dog builds himself a robot companion…

The Persian Version (2024, dir. Maryam Keshavarz)

A young Iranian-America woman is reunited with her estranged family…