Imperium - movie review
Imperium
Plot: A young FBI agent, eager to prove himself in the field, goes undercover as a white supremacist.
Cast: Daniel Radcliffe, Toni Collette, Tracy Letts
Director: Daniel Ragussis
Rating: 15 (strong language, racist behaviour)
Runtime: 1hr 49 mins
Release Date: Friday 23rd September 2016
Transitioning from boy wizard to neo Nazi, Daniel Radcliffe has officially had a varied career. In Imperium, Radcliffe portrays an undercover FBI agent tasked with infiltrating a Nazi group. With a fairly intense looking trailer and fascinating premise, expectations were high. Sadly, Imperium turns out to be a regular run-of-the-mill police drama and never ventures into anything original.
There are other cast members but Imperium is a showcase of Daniel Radcliffe and his incredible talent. After a mediocre venture into magic (again) with Now You See Me 2, Radcliffe returns in a similar quality of film but a far superior performance. Obviously, we'll never forget him as Harry Potter but it's a good thing that Radcliffe isn't simply choosing basic roles that he can do in his sleep. Whilst the film is generic, his character of Nate Foster is such an intriguing protagonist. Having seen him from such a young age and watching him grow, it certainly is a shock to the system to see Radcliffe blurting out racist and horrifying dialogue but it has the intended impact. Clearly he wasn't taking the separation from Ginny well. However, as any actor should, regardless of past fame, Radcliffe really does do a fantastic job in this film. Your heart is beating a million times a minute when he's thrust into the dangerous situations or one of the real Nazi's are cottoning on to his deception. He's also able to show range. At the start, he's a weedy and slightly nerdy FBI agent and then we see him patrolling the street as a skinhead yelling 'white power'. Putting Nate into this position is Toni Collette who plays Angela Zamparo. Collette starts off slightly over-the-top as a demanding agent at her wit's end who finds hope in Radcliffe's character. It was off-putting but when the undercover action begins, her role gets reduced and Angela does become more of a functional supporting role. From that point onwards, Collette calms down with the frantic dialogue and seems more human and relatable. Then of course, there are the neo Nazi's that Nate has to worm his way into. His main objective is to get to Dallas Wolf (Tracy Letts), a radio host who presents his radical ideas on his show. Sam Trammell is another who plays a more reserved Nazi supporter that Nate ends up forming a confidant role with. Both Letts and Trammel play their despicable characters well but they could have gone so much further with it. The actors are only scratching the surface of their characters and they were given various opportunities to become so much more evil. Maybe it was an attempt by the director to tone it down and sustain realism but at the same time, these guys are Nazi's. You can't get more evil than that. However, there are two actors and their performances that completely grasp the horribleness of their characters. The first is Chris Sullivan who plays a leader of a subsection of the main Nazi group focusing on the Aryan brotherhood. Sullivan knew how evil and disgusting of a human being he had to be and you are likely to spend your time watching Imperium hoping that he dies a horrible grisly death. Along with Sullivan in nailing what his character needed to be was Burn Gorman who will be known to Game Of Thrones fans as Karl Tanner. He always seems to play really unlikeable people but in interviews he seems like the nicest of guys. Gorman does a great job in a very small role. He doesn't appear until the end but when he shows up, he makes a much needed impact.
FACT: Imperium is based around the true story of Michael German, an FBI agent who co-wrote the script.
For the most part, Imperium was a missed opportunity. With the exception of three scenes, there was a large amount of tension missing throughout. Instead of being gripped from start to finish, you're likely to be in and out of a coma. There'll be twenty minutes of discussions about Nate slagging off the Jews or the government which will send anyone to sleep and then they'll be rudely awaken by either a parade march or attack. That's not necessarily to say that the conversations taking place aren't key to the story but for them to really work, you need fast paced and engrossing dialogue to keep any audience transfixed. Tarantino is the master of this as most of his films are dialogue heavy. Imperium really is more of a drama than a thriller. It doesn't really find it's feet until half an hour in but at that point, I was beginning to lose interest. On the other hand, this film had moments of greatness and those moments showed the promise of what Imperium could have been. With a tense parade march, a gripping car journey/interrogation and a fitting climax, this is the tone and overall feel that the movie should have had for the entirety of its runtime. They were great scenes that stand out as memorable moments but they're clouded by a forgettable film. The worst part of all of this is that it never pushed the boat out. Imperium plays it too safe and never wandered into controversial territory. When you have a film centred around Nazi's and their absolutely abhorrent behaviour, this is an unbelievable opportunity to push actors to the limit and create a really uncomfortable but effective experience for the audience. We're told that these people are the worst of the worst but apart from things that they were saying, Imperium never demonstrates how evil they truly are. It felt restricted. It never went for it. Make it distressing, tough to watch and above all else, just go for it otherwise it makes for an underwhelming time and unfortunately, Imperium was exactly that.
Undeniably, the acting was great across the board. Daniel Radcliffe quite possibly gives the performance of his career and some of the Nazi's are absolutely villainous. But all of that seems out of place when the film is watered down and the tension is incredibly inconsistent or not even present.
My Verdict: 5.5/10
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