‘Kandahar’ movie review: Despite their best efforts, Gerard Butler and Ali Fazal fail to animate this dun thriller

Gerard Butler is always watchable and two hours of watching him best the baddies should have been a breeze. Well, it is not. Life is all about managing expectations, like Devi’s mum told her when her application for Princeton was deferred (the horror of it). And so Kandahar is lovely looking film. Shot in Saudi Arabia, cinematographer Miguel “MacGregor” Olaso, has showcased the soul of the desert in the undulating frames. The stark, uncompromising timeless landscape directly speaks to one’s primordial core. Then there is also the linguistic authenticity.

Ric Roman Waugh, the man behind that other not-so-nice Butler actioner, Angel Has Fallen and also Greenland, helms this movie from a spec script by former military intelligence officer, Mitchell LaFortune. Maybe that is why the proceedings are so grindingly grim. Straddling the line between reality and entertainment requires a light touch and skill that seems far out of Waugh’s sandbox.

Tom Harris (Butler) is a free lance CIA operative (there are those kinds too) who after successfully completing a mission in an Iranian nuclear facility is headed home to sign divorce papers and make in time for his daughter’s graduation.  

During a layover in Dubai, Harris meets with his handler Roman, (Travis Fimmel) who offers an insane amount of money for one last job. Harris accepts and heads to Herat, in Afghanistan. Meanwhile, there is a journalist, Luna Cujai (Nina Toussaint-White) who is following the CIA’s covert ops in Iran. She, in turn, is being watched by the Iranian government, that after the event at the nuclear facility, arrests her.

Luna’s information causes Harris’ cover to be blown and Oliver Altman (Tom Rhys Harries), the interpreter he worked with, to be shot. Roman aborts the mission and arranges for Harris and his Afghani American interpreter, Mo, (Navid Negahban) to be picked up at Kandahar. Mo accepted the commission and is in Herat searching for his wife’s sister who has gone missing.

The eight-hour, 572 kilometer distance between Herat and Kandahar is fraught with evil people after Harris and Mo. The chief villain is Kahil Nasir (Ali Fazal), a Pakistani agent who has many members of the Taliban in his pocket. He wishes to capture Harris and sell him to the highest bidder. The Iranian forces are also after Harris. Mark Lowe (Mark Arnold) and Chris Hoyt (Corey Johnson) from the CIA are watching Harris and Mo’s progress from one of those situation rooms with minute-by-minute footage from satellites and drones.

There are bombings, great balls of fire, exploding choppers, betrayal by warlords and high-speed chases in crowded markets. There are the pauses where we are suppose to ponder the futility of war, including one where a young boy rattles off all the weapons he can handle to an amused Kahil.

The action sequences are not gripping and the quiet moments are as subtle as a battering ram. Kandahar, like Samarkand, has this evocative aura which is lost on this middling film. All in all, you could watch Kandahar for Butler manfully trying to shoulder the burden of making the film work, or for Fazal’s helmet hair.

Kandahar streams on Amazon Prime Video from June 16