The 1976 hijack of an Air France flight by two members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and two German members of the Revolutionary Cells: it is material that would seem ideally suited to the muscular, if thunderously unsubtle directing style of Brazilian director José Padilha (Elite Squad, Narcos).
But although this bullish drama culminates in what has been described as one of the most daring rescue attempt missions in history, the third act tips over from bombastic to bonkers. Padilha decides that a nail-biting rescue attempt by Israel’s IDF forces isn’t enough on its own. What the climax needs is to be carved up and intercut with a contemporary dance performance. It’s both inexplicable and intensely irritating. Padhila repeatedly yanks us out of the drama, deflating the tension each time.
It’s not the only questionable decision. Rosamund Pike, as German hijacker and revolutionary Brigitte Kuhlmann, captures the frazzled callousness of a woman who feels she has to be twice as tough to compensate for her gender. But the German accent she is forced to wrangle is hammier than a jumbo jet full of wurst. The dialogue, overburdened with declamatory dogma, is exhaustingly expository. The most successful element is the production design, which captures a tense claustrophobia that clings to the central characters like the sweat-drenched synthetics of the authentic 70s costumes.
