Its was only 4 movie blogs ago that Dominic Cooper reared his head in Captain America, playing Stark (Senior) and already here I am again about to write about the same guy but in a very different role. Infact, after appearances in Tamara Drew and Mamma Mia, playing Uday Hussein is quite a drastic alternation of previous performances.
But what a role! Dominic plays both Uday (Saddam's oldest son) and Latif, the school aquaitance and now soldier picked personally by Uday to be his body double and relish in all the presidential glory that comes along with being the Son of Saddam.
Against his will, Latif is forced away from his family to take up a presidential life of sex, drugs and corruption and stand idly by a psychotic, self indulged playboy who drives his cars as fast as he takes his drugs and women.
Uday is portrayed as slightly comical nut case with a quirky high pitched laugh, gappy teeth and a very camp persuasion, until its time for him not to be so friendly and then the Devil really does shine through with quite horrific and devastating results. Latif is the exact opposite. Although challenged on many occasions this movie sees Latif stand for his true beliefs even when it means a beating or even his life threatened by Saddam's son but his morals shine though and you completely admire his bravery and dedication.
I loved this movie. Cooper is completely riveting in both roles and its stitched together seamlessly. The portrayal of Saddam himself is also unnervingly precise and you really do get a honest feel of what life could have been like.
Movies like this will only get made once. They come and go in between huge blockbusters but they absolutely cannot be missed. You fully believe that this actually went on and how traumatic it was for those involved. We only see what the News broadcasts and journalists let us see with hearsay and judgement passed constantly but this opened my eyes to actual events, cut in with real archived footage and I fully believe it to be mesmerising.
1990 is the year and the backdrop to the story is America stepping in to fight Iraq after their invasion of Kuwait and this is, as above, fed back to you with real footage of both the US and Iraq Presidents standing their ground.
That's the story - you know the ending. But its Dominic Coopers performance as Uday & Latif that make this one jaw dropping experience.
Brilliant.
See this if........................................you want to see what happens, behind closed doors.
No comments:
Post a Comment