THE WALL – Review

Aaron Taylor-Johnson in THE WALL. Photo credit: David James.
Courtesy of Amazon Studios and Roadside Attractions ©

Director Doug Liman’s THE WALL is not about Donald Trump’s wall on the Mexican border, the Berlin Wall that symbolized the divide between communist and capitalist countries in the Cold War, or even the Great Wall the Chinese built along their border. No, this wall is the crumbling remains of what was once a building in a contemporary desert war, zone a wall behind which a sniper may be hiding and which later shelters an American serviceman pinned down in that dusty war.

Liman is a skillful film maker but this a decidedly smaller film for the director behind THE BOURNE IDENTITY and many others. The intimate war drama THE WALL starts out in a contemporary desert war zone with a pair of U.S. Army Rangers, Sgt. Allen Isaac (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) and Staff Sgt. Shane Matthews (John Cena), trying to determine if the enemy sniper that killed everyone at this remote location is still alive, and to kill him if he is. It is easy to assume the gritty, rocky spot is in Afghanistan but we shortly learn, no, it is Iraq. Very quickly, Cena’s character is wounded and the young soldier played by Taylor-Johnson takes shelter behind a crumbling wall, where he remains pinned down by the unseen sniper. Hampered by a partly broken radio, the young American finds himself stuck behind the wall talking by radio to the sniper who holds hum there.

The action in this film is realistic and graphic but actually there is not much in it. Anyone expecting the taut thrills of SOLE SURVIVOR will be disappointed. THE WALL is a war drama on a small-scale and the largely static situation in Dwain Worrell’s script could almost be on a stage. For most of the film, the focus is on Aaron Taylor-Johnson as Sgt. Allen Isaac trapped behind the wall as he talks to the sniper who keeps him there. The situation is of one or a handful of soldiers pinned down is doubtless one in which many soldiers in countless war have found themselves. But this specific premise is similar to another film, PHONE BOOTH, in which a man is trapped in a phone booth by an unseen sniper who speaks to him through the phone, although other thriller films have used a similar device.

However, THE WALL is not very thrilling. There is some action but the film is more psychological drama than action thriller, with most of the screen time occupied by the young soldier trapped behind the wall, as he and his unseen enemy talk, each trying to learn something that will give them an edge. The problem is that we know so little about the American soldier before he is stuck behind the wall that is harder to feel involved or care what is happening on-screen.

THE WALL is both dull and depressing to watch. By setting the film in Iraq rather than Afghanistan, Liman’s main purpose may have been to remind us that American troops are still there, long after the war supposedly ended. Liman uses the story and dialog to remind us of several facts in this long-running war but we learn nothing new about it. The wall is the remains of a school and the site appears to be a place where oil company contractors were constructing a pipeline, but now is strewn with dead bodies of construction workers, private security and American soldiers. The plot about the Iraqi sniper reportedly was inspired by real events, in which an Iraqi translator who did a good American accent switched sides, but that little twist is not enough to sustain interest. The story is resolved in a way that seems inevitable, as well as depressingly grim.

Liman may have intended this grim film and its static situation as a metaphor for American soldiers stuck in the seeming endless war in Iraq, but it makes for a dull film. Despite its rather short running time of just over 80 minutes, THE WALL feels much longer. Action and movement are limited and for most of the time, it is a single character on-screen talking to another character we do not see..Liman uses his considerable skill to build a sense of place and desolation visually, focusing on the blowing wind, the sand, the dust-covered bodies and blasted equipment, and cinematographer Roman Vasyanov does a good job evoking the sense of being in the war zone.

Audiences are likely to feel like they want to escape as much as the American soldier does. Part of the problem is that we know so little about the character before the stand-off starts, so it is harder to care what happens on-screen. Ironically, we actually learn more about the sniper in the in course of their conversations, but even what we learn about him feels rather generic. The trapped soldier may have been intended as an Every Man but Liman does not tap into any philosophical potential the story may hold.

THE WALL is an unsatisfying, depressing film, with too little happening, little new to say, and characters that we do not really get to know. Audiences might feel as trapped as the soldier behind the wall, and just as eager to escape.

RATING: 2 out of 5 stars