Cast: John Malkovich, Sam Rockwell, Steve Buscemi Review by Carol Allen
The background to the story is the lead up in 1973 to the planned military coup in Chile, in which the democratically elected president Salvador Allende is fated to be overthrown. The CIA’s sticky fingers are inevitably well involved, reflecting America’s paranoia about communism. Veteran agents and longtime friends Lee ((Sam Rockwell) and Chris (John Malkovich) are in Santiago, in close touch with their CIA boss MJ (a now silver haired Steve Buscemi).
The duo has a long history of doing the CIA’s dirty work during the cold war, and Chris, who we later discover is dying of cancer and dosing heavily on morphine, has developed a tendency to reminisce about those definitely dodgy deeds, sometimes into a Dictaphone, sometimes to actual people. This marks him as a security risk, so MJ packs him off 2,000 miles away out into the Pacific Ocean to the remote Easter Island or Rapa Nui to give it its proper name, along with Lee to keep an eye on him. This is supposedly Chris’s choice though later on he tells Lee, that he’d rather have gone to Venice, Italy!
At the airport they meet two young Chilean college students, Monica (Mariana di Girolamo) and her friend Alicia (Ailín Salas), also bound for the island. They are Allende supporters. “Enjoy him while you can, ladies,” Chris grins, to Lee’s horror. That statement’s coming back to haunt them.
Rapa Nui itself is interesting, not only for the Moai, the famous, enigmatic statues, but also for the many horses, both feral and tame, that roam freely around them in a landscape which looks a bit like parts of Scotland with the occasional palm tree. Chris enjoys both the equine company and that of his old buddy Lee, who is getting constant telephone calls from MJ to check on the situation, The body of the film is an exploration of their friendship, full of dark references to the dirty deeds they’ve both done on behalf of their country. Most fascinating of all are Chris’s hints about how he might or might not have been involved in the assassination of Kennedy in November 1963.
The film revolves around Malkovich, reminiscing and relishing McDonagh’s dialogue in his distinctive rich whine of a voice. While Rockwell is to some extent playing second fiddle, there is still plenty of opportunity to discover Lee’s character too in the duo’s recollections of their mutual morally dodgy past and what it reveals about the strength of their friendship, not to mention the ruthless national ego of the CIA. And being a McDonagh movie, it’s not of course without its share of violent action too.
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