Operation Finale

After the fall of Hitler and the end of the WWW II, the dust settles and the entire scope of true evil fills its place. Countries collect their fallen and rebuild. But the Jewish people mourn and continue to mourn the loss of over 6 million Jewish ancestries’ of genocide to this day.

And from that unimaginable time comes a new mission, to capture and bring to justice the Nazi hierarchy responsible for those deaths, most notably the infamous Adolf Eichmann (Ben Kingsley), who is credited with the logistics, transportation and execution orders for millions of Jews, murdered in his various concentration camps.

It’s the early 60s and under a false name and hiding, Eichmann, is found to be in Argentina by a blind-Jewish man pretending to be Catholic, as his daughter begins a courtship with Eichmann’s son.

This news gets back to the Israeli government and Operation Finale is born as a group of special-op agents, most notably Peter Malkin (Oscar Isaac), travel to the Argentina with the goal of capturing Eichmann and bringing him back to Israel to stand trail.

There are so many variables that occur during such a mission and despite the heinous crimes Eichmann is accused of they simply can’t capture him and ask for the Argentine assistance to bring him back. It must be covert.

A web of deceit and lies must take place as the group does weeks of surveillance formulating their plan, recruiting locals, developing disguises, alibis and finally the capture and abstraction of the war criminal without being heard or seen.

This becomes quite difficult after they capture Eichmann their escape plans are cancelled by influential Nazi’s in Buenos Aries and they must stay put in their safe-house, all the while trying to get Eichmann to sign a confession paper so Israel can send them an emergency plane back to pick them all up.

This snag, however, leads to the most interesting part of the film as Eichmann and his captor, Malkin, begin dialogue, or better put psychological warfare to see who can break the other first.

Kingsley is absolutely mesmerizing in this role, continuing the brilliant acting of his youth years into the twilight of the present. He says more with very little, his silent glare haunting, his lies dancing in your head evoking sympathy.

For me he’s surpassed his peers such as Hopkins, Di Nero, Nicholson, at this stage of their careers. While those fine actors have continued to bank on their boisterous personas, becoming almost caricatures of their former roles, Kingsley continues to morph into the characters he becomes and not the other way around.

I hated how much I liked him in this film as I too because a puppet of his charm, similar to his effect on Malkin. That is until giving the viewer a true view of his character and what evil men can be capable of as he realizes his fate before him waiting on the wings of a plane trip to back to Europe.

It’s an interesting film, more so because I wasn’t aware of the entire story going into the film but outside of Kingsley a few solid moments from Isaac and the archival footage of the trail shown around the world it’s a ho-hum ride.

It’s good but not nearly as thrilling and entertaining as similar films such as Munich. See it but maybe when it becomes available on VOD.