Crafting a ‘Siege’ Mentality

“The Siege” is a political thriller with more plausibility--and yes, more thrills--than most. It’s a “what-if” movie on a stark subject, terrorist bombings in this country, that tries to serve the two masters of drama and reality and does it for longer than you might predict.

Though “The Siege” loses its way in its final sections, the extent of the film’s success is considerable, and largely due to the fine performances of stars Denzel Washington and Annette Bening. It’s a pleasure to have actors of this caliber working together on what in many ways is, political relevance aside, strictly cops-and-robbers material.

“The Siege” also benefits from being well-crafted. The work of director Edward Zwick and his team is crisply professional, and the film’s script, credited to Lawrence Wright and Menno Meyjes & Zwick, is notable for its careful plotting and dialogue that avoids missteps for a good while.

Helping ratchet the tension up is the unfortunate fact that a scenario involving a wave of terrorist bombings hitting New York City is far from out of the question. To watch “The Siege” is to be aware to the point of discomfort that the film’s fatal explosions could appear as soon as tomorrow morning’s paper.

The terrorist organization in “The Siege” is an Arabic one, and while Arab American organizations are understandably upset at this, the choice has a basis in fact and was clearly not a knee-jerk decision for a film that’s more concerned than most to acknowledge the existence of non-terrorist Arabs and present them in a sympathetic light.

After a prologue introducing the fictitious Sheik Ahmed Ben Talal, thought to be behind the bombings of the U.S. base in Saudi Arabia, “The Siege” switches to Manhattan and the charismatic presence of Anthony “Hub” Hubbard, head of the FBI’s anti-terrorism task force in New York.

It’s difficult to watch Washington giving his usual commanding performance in this, his third film with Zwick (after “Glory” and “Courage Under Fire”), and not harbor the fond wish that our government agents were as capable as this. So intent on his job he at one point doesn’t notice that his nose is badly bleeding, Hubbard is adept at pushing his people to track down every lead.

A fake terrorist attack on a city bus introduces Hubbard to the mysterious Elise Kraft (Bening), a woman who is at the very least his match. A CIA agent who knows a great deal about Arab terrorism but is reluctant to share her information, the tough and world-weary Kraft seems ravaged by her experiences, determined not to trust and troubled by that determination.

These collaborators and combatants have numerous scenes together, and the way Bening and Washington handle the script’s sharp repartee--toying with an undercurrent of sexual tension but sticking strictly to business--is a textbook case of how crackling acting and empathetic direction can elevate all kinds of material.

Helping the mix is veteran Tony Shalhoub, an actor of Lebanese heritage best known for playing other nationalities (like the uncompromising Italian chef in “Big Night”). Here he plays Hubbard’s right hand, Frank Haddad, an Arab American FBI agent who finds his loyalties torn as the situation worsens.

“The Siege” is at its best when Hubbard’s FBI team, with Kraft’s uncertain cooperation, works frantically to track down the committed bombers who are working their will on the city. The film’s script reveals its credible twists a little at a time, and Zwick, who wisely chooses to indicate carnage rather than actually show it, is expert at making the twists tense and nerve-racking.

The film does run into trouble, however, at its key plot turn regarding the willingness of the president to declare martial law (hence the film’s poster art of heavily armed soldiers marching across the Brooklyn Bridge) and place the city under the control of by-the-book Gen. William Devereaux (Bruce Willis).

It’s not only that Willis, who’s made a career out of playing tongue-in-cheek roles, is miscast and not credible in what ought to be a straight-ahead performance. The rationale for going to martial law feels like a contrivance (other countries with bombing problems haven’t done it) and the script not only loses a level of plausibility, it comes on increasingly broad-brush and preachy as it gets closer to its conclusion.

But even at its most unbelievable, “The Siege” has the performances of Washington and Bening to fall back on, and a theme that understands that what’s difficult is not choosing right from wrong but “choosing the wrong that’s more right.” It’s the rare thriller that’s this immediate and that asks audiences to consider, even fleetingly, the dangers we face as a society.

* MPAA rating: R, for violence, language and brief nudity. Times guidelines: a brief shot of a bombing victim with one arm blown off.

‘The Siege’

Denzel Washington: Anthony Hubbard

Annette Bening: Elise Kraft

Bruce Willis: Gen. William Devereaux

Tony Shalhoub: Frank Haddad

Sami Bouajila: Samir Nazhde

A Lynda Obst production, released by 20th Century Fox. Director Edward Zwick. Producers Lynda Obst, Edward Zwick. Executive producer Peter Schindler. Screenplay Lawrence Wright and Menno Meyjes & Edward Zwick. Story by Lawrence Wright. Cinematographer Roger Deakins. Editor Steven Rosenblum. Costumes Ann Roth. Music Graeme Revell. Production design Lilly Kilvert. Art director Chris Shriver. Set decorator Gretch Rau. Running time: 1 hour, 56 minutes.

In general release throughout Southern California.