Kandahar Review: Gerard Butler, Ali Fazal's Film Feels Forced And Manipulative

Title: Kandahar

Director: Ric Roman Waugh

Cast: Gerard Butler, Navid Negahban, Ali Fazal, Travis Fimmel, Elnaaz Norouzi, Bahador Foladi, Olivia-Mai Barrett, Rebecca Calder

Streaming on: Prime Video

Rating: **1/2

Kandahar is a survival-cum-rescue film set in the hostile war-torn region of Iran and Afghanistan.

The film begins with a freelance undercover CIA agent Tom Harris (Gerard Butler), posing as a Swiss communications contractor, assigned to destroy a nuclear research facility in Iran.

After successfully completing this mission, Tom leaves for London, but en route to Dubai, his CIA handler Roman Chalmers (Travis Fimmel) assigns him a similar mission but this time in Herat, Afghanistan. Tom accepts the assignment because it will pay enough to cover his daughter’s university expenses.

Paired with an interpreter, Mohammad “Mo” Doud (Navid Negahban), Tom travels to Herat, but before they can reach the nuclear facility, their cover is blown due to an intelligence leak by a Pentagon whistleblower. Their identity is brought to public attention after the Islamic Revolutionary Guards arrest Luna Cujal, a female journalist.

Now, hunted by the top Iranian Operative Farzad Asadi (Bahador Foladi) and the dashing, motorbike-riding elite Pakistani task force operative Kahil (Ali Fazal), along with various elements of the Taliban and ISIS, Tom, and Mo have no choice but to abort their mission in Herat and trek 400 miles to Kandahar, where a plane awaits to transport them to safety. How they desperately manage to make their way through the hostile, enemy-controlled territory forms the crux of the narrative.

While Director Ric Roman Waugh and his cinematographer MacGregor show this desert land as beautiful, remote, and forbidding with its action sequences, which are astutely choreographed and brilliantly shot, its narrative lacks chutzpah.

The screenplay, written by Mitchell LaFortune, is laden with Hollywood tropes and conventions that overwhelm reality and often miss emotional beats. The only scene that may probably touch your heart is the scene after Mo confronts Tom’s friend Ismail Rabbani (Ray Haratian), an Afghan Warlord, and then accuses Tom with, “You called him your brother. You know how insulting it is? He killed my son, and the house is at war because of you and people like you empowering people like him without caring about my people. Shame on you.”

Unfortunately, this powerful scene is short-lived to create any further empathy. Its message is lost in the survival proceedings that follow. Similar is the case with the other sub-plots that weave the story.

For most of the part, the relationship between Tom and his interpreter gives the narrative a feel of a buddy film, but the takeaway is not satisfying.

On the performance front, the charismatic Butler is convincing and notably restrained. He is aptly supported by Navid Negahban, Bahador Foladi, Ali Fazal, and the rest of the cast, who deliver compelling and earnest portrayals of the characters they essay.

Overall, the film feels forced and manipulative.