Stream It Or Skip It: ‘The Mauritanian’ on Showtime, a Sturdy Political-Legal Procedural

The Mauritanian — now on Showtime, after premiering in theaters early in 2021 — enjoyed a profile boost recently after Jodie Foster won the Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress, a distinction of increasingly dubious credibility, but one that still makes headlines, especially if the winner gives an acceptance speech in her jammies. The film isn’t necessarily blatant awards bait, more baitish, because we see a lot of BOATS (Based On A True Story, of course!) procedurals that fade into the streaming menus. But this one has some caché thanks to Foster, director Kevin Macdonald (who won a best documentary Oscar for One Day in September and helmed The Last King of Scotland, the showpiece that won Forest Whitaker an Oscar) and the international bestseller it’s based on, Guantanamo Diary, which chronicles Mohamedou Salahi’s mighty struggles in the infamous detention center. And after all that, the biggest reason to watch The Mauritanian may be Tahar Rahim, who plays Salahi with complexity and heart.

THE MAURITANIAN: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: Warning: this movie dramatizes events occurring between 2001 and 2010 (and maybe even 2016), but let’s not fool ourselves into thinking it’ll be linear — some movies believe they’ll cease to exist if they don’t timehop themselves along the precipice to oblivion. But guess what, this time it makes sense, because The Mauritanian backloads all the intense, horrifying stuff for dramatic effect, and it works. If I’m getting ahead of myself here, I apologize, but I’m trying to encourage everyone to stick with it through the first two solid, but dramatically basic acts.

So. MAURITANIA, 2001, “two months after 9/11,” a subtitle reminds us (as if we’d forget?). Salahi (Rahim) is scooped up by authorities because “the American want to talk to you.” He quickly deletes the contacts in his cell phone and says goodbye to his mother, who thumbs her Muslim prayer beads. He’ll never see her again. ALBUQUERQUE, 2005. Criminal defense lawyer Nancy Hollander (Foster) gets the scoop on Salahi’s situation. He’s accused of being one of the Al Qaeda masterminds behind 9/11. He allegedly fielded a call from Osama bin Laden’s cell phone. He’s been detained for four years but still hasn’t been charged with anything. Is he in Gitmo? “‘He’s not not there?’,” she says incredulously into the phone. “He’s not Schrodinger’s cat. He’s either there or he’s not there.” Hollander’s been doing this kind of thing since the ’70s, and this case already is shaping up to be the biggest challenge of her career. She scoops up relative newbie law assistant Teri Duncan (Shailene Woodley) and they catch a flight to Cuba.

Meanwhile, god-loving military prosecutor Stuart Couch (Benedict Cumberbatch) is tasked with prosecuting Salahi opposite Hollander. He has a personal stake in it — a good friend was a pilot in one of the planes that hit the World Trade Center. He goes to church with the man’s widow, and assures her he’ll bring Salahi to justice. Hollander and Duncan visit Salahi, who’s kind of a nice guy, and even makes jokes about Charlie Sheen. Hollander holds the stern face and Duncan, the softer one. On the way out, Hollander bumps into Couch in the Gitmo gift shop and they have a beer, the movie’s most surreal moment, which is really saying something, because we’re soon to see disturbing scenes of vile and cruel torture in which Salahi struggles to differentiate dreams from reality.

It’s because of those very scenes — shown in flashbacks shot in a claustrophobic aspect ratio — that both attorneys are being stonewalled by the government in their attempts to research the situation. Hollander and Duncan plow through boxes and boxes of useless redacted documents; Couch can’t get anyone to answer his calls, even from longtime friends. Couch is under a lot of pressure to get this done quickly. Hollander faces serious scrutiny because she’s defending someone who the public has deemed one of the world’s nastiest terrorists. All the while, Salahi sits in a cramped metal cell; he gets some outdoor respite in a little fenced-in square, where he prays, enjoys the sunshine and befriends a Frenchman in the neighboring pen. They chat, but they can’t see each other. One day, the Frenchman isn’t there anymore. You can surely guess what happened to him. The guards tell Salahi what happened to him, but who knows if it’s the truth. Life in Gitmo is horrifying in the best of times, and unspeakable in the worst.

What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: In 2019, Adam Driver starred in The Report, playing the man who spent a decade digging through millions of documents so he could write the Torture Report. And 2007’s Rendition covered similar guilt-by-association territory.

Performance Worth Watching: We know what Foster can do, and she does it here. She’s good, of course she’s good. The real story is Rahim, who exhibits significant screen presence and depth of character in spite of the occasionally muddled screenplay.

Memorable Dialogue: This attorney-client exchange:

Hollander: There’ll be three names on the lawsuit — the United States of America, Donald Rumsfeld and George W. Bush.

Salahi: Sure. Why not.

Sex and Skin: A non-graphic, but still troubling scene of sexual assault.

Our Take: The Mauritanian consists of passable first and second acts and an extraordinary third act. And without the humanity Rahim brings to his character, and typically sturdy charisma from Foster and Cumberbatch (Woodley is an afterthought here), we might not make it to that taut, suspenseful final 40 minutes, when the film finds its teeth and asserts that “extraordinary rendition” and torture will never lead to the truth — and signifies the U.S.’ longstanding moral rot. (Hey guess what, Gitmo is still a functioning detention center.) That’s the point here, and it’s persuasive and insistent, even if it takes a while to reach it.

Otherwise, the film is a stylistically familiar procedural with just enough character to keep it afloat. Foster plays the hardened defense attorney as someone who’s long sacrificed her personal life to the ideals of the U.S. Constitution. Cumberbatch plays the conservative military lifer with a reasonably convincing southern accent and a firm sense of moral conviction. And although Rahim is terrific, the film lessens his character’s emotional currency somewhat by leaving the question of Salahi’s innocence open, a result of a screenplay muddied with flashbacks, and sometimes flashbacks within flashbacks.

As well-executed as The Mauritanian is down the stretch — especially that final smash-to-black moment — I struggled to ascertain the moral crux of Salahi’s character. He participated in jihadist activities, even allying himself with the U.S. as a “freedom fighter” attempting to overthrow communost rule in Afghanistan, but was he a changed man before he was sent to Gitmo? Surely, the harrowing experience pushed him further away from extremism, or am I mistaken? The film likely offers itself as food for thought more than a character study; it surely leaves us wrangling with the basic questions of the morality of corporal punishment. That’s not nothing, although it’s a bit frustratingly Schrodinger’s cat of the movie, isn’t it?

Our Call: STREAM IT. The Mauritanian is a sturdy political-legal procedural despite its flaws. It won’t change the world, but it’s worth a watch.

John Serba is a freelance writer and film critic based in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Read more of his work at johnserbaatlarge.com or follow him on Twitter: @johnserba.

Where to stream The Mauritanian