Flawed, But Eva Green Proves Herself as an Action Star

Blood, violence, and suspense all collide in director Martin Campbell’s new action thriller, Dirty Angels. But the film isn’t all that blessed when it comes to character development and the kinds of depth audiences appreciate when watching a posse of frenzied folks trying to save the day. Machine guns go off. The body count mounts. Our emotions are put to the test as the lives of young hostages hang on the edge. It’s a shame we don’t know more about any of these people. But we’ll know just enough, and that’s what the filmmakers may be banking on.

Dirty Angels was written by Alissa Sullivan Haggis and Jonas McCord. Martin, reportedly a fan of “mission movies” from the 1960s like The Guns of Navarone and The Dirty Dozen, must have been intrigued by the premise here, which finds a group of schoolgirls taken hostage in Afghanistan. Their fate lies in the smarts of an American soldier named Jake, played by Eva Green, who worked with Campbell on the stellar James Bond film Casino Royale. Jake eventually joins an all-women commando unit to liberate the hostages with a plan to gain the trust of the terrorists by posing as members of a relief organization. That doesn’t go too well, as you can imagine. Another action thriller is born.

But Campbell, a stellar director behind such standout action thrillers like GoldenEye, The Mask of Zorro, Vertical Limit, Beyond Borders, Edge of Darkness, and The Protégé, can’t save the script, which relies more on violent scenarios and a lengthy build-up to the film’s climactic rescue attempt. In between, we’re given brief glimpses into this group of fiercely dedicated women, but nothing more. Green’s Jake manages to evoke intrigue and concern as the character is carrying around a past trauma, which makes for a great backstory. Otherwise, as gripping as the film can be at times, it misses its great potential to be something grand.

Not Enough Creative Bullets in ‘Dirty Angels’

Dirty Angels also stars Maria Bakalova (Creature Commandos), Ruby Rose, Jojo T. Gibbs, Christopher Backus, and Reza Brojerdi. The film opens with a tragedy Eva Green’s Jake faces and will remain impacted by. You see, she’s a tough-as-nails Army Ranger who prides herself on leaving nobody behind in the field, regardless of danger. After a botched mission that left her team dead, Jake’s nerves and her reputation take a beating. This could be the end of her career.

But wait. Back in the Middle East, jihadists in Afghanistan bombarded a Pakistani all-girls school and kidnapped the students there. Eventually, they release all but five of those girls who are daughters of ambassadors and other government officials. Their ransom is high. This swings back into Jake’s court because, as fate — and this script — would have it, she is suddenly placed in command of a rescue team comprised of mostly fierce female soldiers. It takes a while for all this to fall into place, with an immediate alliance forming with one of the comrades, Christopher Backus’s Travis, who attempts to convince the rebels that this rag-tag team are medics on hand providing relief.

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This makes for a great premise. And the set-up, the story, Jake’s angsty backstory, and the actual setting allow the audience to go, “Okay, I’ll buy it.” It’s just that the film — and this is mostly due to the writing, another surprise because the story also came from Campbell — is often one-note, too often skimming the surface. What a better-executed tale this would have been if we knew more about Jake other than her main tragedy. Or the other women in the team. This would have given the audience a deeper investment in caring more about the characters and how things play out.

‘Dirty Angel’s Compelling Premise Wins You Over Yet Fails to Fully Deliver

That said, there is something to appreciate about the characters we are given. Of the mix, Maria Bakalova’s character, dubbed “The Bomb,” is the most intriguing. A bomb expert, the character’s quirky edge outshines some of the others in the scene. As for Green, it’s a joy to watch her in what’s been billed as her first action thriller, and while the script only allows her character so much depth, Green captures Jake’s torment to winning ends. We realize that, for her, the new mission is all the more important because, if successful, it could somehow ease the pain of what came before. Other characters, particularly the terrorists, follow traditional antagonist tropes, but there’s enough of a spark there to make things compelling.

Overshadowing all this, and sometimes in a good way, is director Martin Campbell’s savvy way of dropping us into a place. From helicopter treks to dusty enclaves where terror is taking place, these scenes do come across as believable, and you wonder if spread across, say, eight episodes of a streaming drama, Campbell et al. could have been more successful. Shows like Homeland, Jack Ryan, Seal Team Six, and The Terminal List, for instance, managed to create three-dimensional characters with great backstories.

One could argue that Campbell opted for more action sequences, but even the most memorable of those are reserved for the film’s final 20 minutes. There are a few unique spins offered during the back-and-forth between the kidnappers, but this ping-pong match feels drawn out, and the film leans too heavily into any and all kinds of action-thriller tropes. (Although, there’s a bit of joy in all that at times.)

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That’s one of the main flaws of Dirty Angels. It takes a bit too much time to get where it’s going. All this could have been rectified if there was a greater sense of character development leading up to a climactic scene. What we’re left with is a lot of reaction rather than revelation.

Still, fans of military action dramas should not be too disappointed. And the fact that this film features a powerful female cast thrust into dangerous situations should spark more than a modest sense of intrigue. We don’t often find tales quite as ambitious as this one is in tone and its dedication to a sense of place. Look for Eva Green to surprise you along the way, too. The actress proves herself to be a powerful action hero star. Let’s just give her more action to star in. Dirty Angels hits theaters and is available on VOD December 13.