The Mauritanian: Amazon Prime Video Film Review

Cast: Jodie Foster, Tahar Rahim, Benedict Cumberbatch, Shailene Woodley, Zachary Levi

Director: Kevin Macdonald

In truth, The Mauritanian is a film we've seen before.

A tale of a wronged man, imprisoned and trapped within a system that doesn't seem willing to give him a chance, it's rife for all kinds of award-bait performances.

Adapted from his own book Guantanamo Diary, The Mauritanian is the tale of Mohamedou Ould Salahi (A Prophet's Tahar Rahim), a man taken off the streets and imprisoned in Guantanamo Bay without charge in 2002, in light of the 9/11 attacks.

When Jodie Foster's dogged attorney Nancy Hollander hears of the case, against the wishes of her own legal firm, she decides to defend Salahi on the principle of constitutional law. 

However, the US government strongly believes that Salahi is one of the masterminds of bin Laden's plot against the World Trade Centre and so a legal battle begins...

While it's solidly acted, and plotted hitting all the usual notes and tropes of the genre, The Mauritanian never quite hits the highs it should.

Perhaps it's due to the fact that while threatening to be some kind of modern day take on A Few Good Men and many other legal dramas, there is nary an antagonist in Macdonald's film that's given much time on screen or a chance to pit or debate opposing ideologies in the court room.

It's here that The Mauritanian sadly falters, as it starts to hit some of the cliches of the genre.

From dialogue that you've heard before ("Since when have you cared what the firm says," Foster's attorney is asked) to murky talk of conspiracies, The Mauritanian seems more insistent on ensuring it notches up every familiar post of the legal genre as it spins through its 129-minute run time.

And yet, it is blessed by one great performance - that of Tahar Rahim as Guantanamo Bay's imprisoned Mohamedou Ould Salahi.

Imbuing Salahi with humanity (perhaps unsurprisingly Salahi is an executive producer and his memoir it's drawn from), and a charm even in the darkest moments, Rahim makes his character leap from the cliched traps which have narratively been set along the way. From a gentle flirtation with Woodley's naive lawyer to a touching scene where Salahi sways in an outside cell remembering the sound of the beach, Rahim is never anything short of magnetic and elevates the by-the-numbers material.

Macdonald provides some electric moments behind the camera as well.

Whether it's the initial camerawork low-tracking through the Gitmo corridors to showcase the claustrophobia to the horrifying extended sequence of the sensory torture Salahi was subjected to, there are moments that shine and lift The Mauritanian up.

But they're too few and far inbetween, and the film never quite hits the inspirational model it's perhaps aspiring to; whether it's because the catharsis of the film rarely feels earned enough or the conflict is too tamely aspired to, The Mauritanian ends up being simply a worthy film that's watchable enough, but frustratingly, nothing more.

The Mauritanian begins streaming on Amazon Prime Video on March 24.