Fun
Frisky
Nostalgic
Intense
Adventurous
Choked Up
Curious
Romantic
Weird
The Wall, Doug Liman‘s psychological war thriller, is a unique little film. While war movies may tend to be all about dramatic moments and big explosions, The Wall instead looks at the smaller picture and sticks us with two central characters played by John Cena and Aaron Taylor-Johnson. A one-location war movie could easily become tired and repetitive, but thanks to Taylor-Johnson’s performance and some stunning cinematography, The Wall never feels like a slog.
The film’s premise sees our soldiers engage in far more psychological warfare than physical; it’s 2007 in the Iraq desert and these two Army Rangers, Shane Matthews (Cena) and Allan “Ize” Isaac (Taylor Johnson) find themselves in a sinister standoff with an unseen sniper who taunts them over the radio. When Matthews goes down to investigate a slew of bodies and gets shot himself, Ize rushes down despite Matthews’ protests and gets shot in the leg, taking refuge behind a wall of sorts while Matthews bleeds out beyond it. How do these two get introduced to the disembodied sniper voice? Ize’s radio goes down and he’s forced to switch to a different frequency, a move that will eventually connect him to the man that lives to taunt them. The way the film plays out is way too good to spoil, but there’s something to be said for the controlled chaos that lies at the beating heart of The Wall.
Almost the entire movie takes place behind this stone wall of temporary safety, and it’s a doozy. Liman ramps up the tension as high as he can get it; tight closeups on Taylor-Johnson’s face, grisly special effects, and a haunting voice performance from Laith Nakli. The script is lean and mean, never venturing into melodramatic territory or contrived sequences of dialogue, but at its core, The Wall really belongs to Taylor-Johnson. There’s never a moment that he’s not believable; his fear and panic is totally palpable, but he comes back down when he remembers his training, recalls why he’s here in the first place, and it’s breathtaking. The war may be over, or so Ize thinks – but in this killer’s mind, it’s only just begun.
It’s hard really classify The Wall as a war movie because it works so damn well as a haunting thriller. Think When A Stranger Calls, but out in the desert with sniper rifles and radio waves. You’re bound to have your heart in your throat from the middle point on; it’s truly an exercise in anxiety, one that toys with your emotions in ways that are completely blindsiding. There don’t need to be high concepts at play to tell an effective soldier’s story; The Wall succeeds because it stays small and understands just how terrifying and consistently compelling a cat and mouse game can be.
