A House of Dynamite Review: Kathryn Bigelow’s Rashomon-Style Nuclear Attack Thriller Misfires
On paper, A House of Dynamite looks like it’s going to end up in my Top 10 list as one of the best movies of the year. The movie marks the highly anticipated return of Kathryn Bigelow, her first in eight years since Detroit, featuring an intriguing premise told in Rashomon-style structure from three different vantage points.
The premise in question revolves around an unidentified intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) that is blasted out of the sky and is heading towards Chicago. The countdown to impact is pretty tight, clocking in at just 18 minutes, which forces the U.S. authorities to make a quick decision before facing possible mass casualties. This, in turn, begs the all-important question: What if a nuclear launch targeted at the most powerful country in the world leaves everyone with severely insufficient time to come up with a countermeasure?
Such a what-if scenario sounds plausible, especially given today’s geopolitical climate. Too bad the execution tells another story, leaving me with mixed feelings after Kathryn Bigelow’s latest political thriller fails to sustain a consistent momentum to justify the movie’s nearly two-hour runtime.
It does, however, get off to a promising first act with the introduction of Olivia Walker (Rebecca Ferguson), a senior officer in charge of the White House Situation Room. Upon learning about the ICBM launch, Walker initiates a video call with high-ranking officials and other world leaders while her team is busy gathering intelligence and trying whatever they can to intercept the missile.
The ICBM launch is first detected by Major Daniel Gonzalez (Anthony Ramos), the base commander stationed at Fort Greely in Alaska. He and his team initially believe it might be a test, only to realise the missile is a real threat. For a while there, Bigelow does a good job raising the stakes with enough tension-filled moments of panicked reactions, endless phone ringing and the recurring sight of the digital countdown clock on the big screen ticking backwards. Ferguson gives her all, and no doubt that the first 40 minutes or so showcase Bigelow’s steady grip in executing a propulsive race-against-time thriller.
Now, if only the rest of the movie is as gripping as the first act. The tension immediately dissipates once the part with Ferguson’s Olivia Walker ends abruptly to reset back to zero, and starts all over again in the second act. In other words, the movie revisits the same event, only this time from the perspective of a higher-ranking officer from the Nebraska-based Strategic Command Centre (STRATCOM), played by Tracy Letts as General Anthony Brody. His no-nonsense performance is spot-on, but the overall second act feels repetitive with the same storytelling beat. It dilutes into a pale shadow by comparison to the thrilling first act while losing its steam along the way.
The biggest issue here lies in its rigid storytelling that keeps moving in circles without a sense of forward momentum. Even if Noah Oppenheim’s screenplay is meant to depict these characters are trapped in a situation they can’t seem to get away from, despite all their resources and expertise, it does little to push the narrative for the better.
Then comes the third and final part, where the typically suave Idris Elba brings his usual charisma to his portrayal as the President of the United States, marking a shift from his UK prime minister role in Prime Video’s action comedy Heads of State. But like Tracy Letts, there’s only so much he can do when his performance is ultimately hampered by the same old, rinse-and-repeat structure. It’s a pity that so much potential here is wasted, coupled with the anticlimactic ending, which feels rather frustrating than something worthy of a debate.
A House of Dynamite is currently streaming on Netflix.
