Operation Finale could be an awards contender

Since his breakthrough role five years ago in the Coen Brothers Inside Llewyn Davis (2013) Oscar Isaac has emerged as one of the most interesting actors around. Partly I think that is due to his willingness to take chances; his roles since 2013 include films as diverse as Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015) and The Promise (2016).

Now with Operation Finale he stretches himself again, not as an actor but as a producer. This is a challenging topic; the story of the hunt for Adolf Eichmann is the sort of film that Hollywood studios find it increasingly difficult to finance so in Netflix it has found a perfect fit.

As the ‘architect of the Holocaust’ Eichmann (Ben Kingsley) was top of the most wanted Nazis list after the post-war trials at Nuremberg. When the Israeli secret service, Mossad, gets a tip in 1960 that he is now in Argentina there is pressure to go and kill him, as they did with so many other Nazis. However there is also a feeling that taking him alive and putting him on trial would make an important point about the status of the fledgling state of Israel and send a message to its enemies.

The decision is taken. Eichmann will be smuggled out of Argentina and brought back to Israel. The plan is conceived by Peter Malkin (Oscar Isaac), a disgraced Mossad agent who has much to prove. It is audacious and as Mike Tyson said ‘Everyone has a plan until I punch them in the mouth’.

In this scenario the punch in the mouth is a combination of diplomatic nicety and commercial cold feet which means that Malkin and his team have to hide in plain sight, with Eichmann, in Argentina. Meanwhile the nascent nationalist movement in the country, for whom Eichmann and his coevals are a potent symbol, are hunting them down.

Director Chris Weitz has constructed a tense and suspenseful ticking clock scenario which, in terms of recent movies, resembles Argo (2012). But much more interesting is the debate between Eichmann and his captors which takes place in the foreground while the clock ticks down in the background.

This is an essay in evil, specifically in the banality of evil. Eichmann, whose notorious defence was that he was only following orders, at first sees the Holocaust as a matter of scale. It’s a logical problem for him, and one that has to be solved efficiently to manufacture murder on an industrial scale.

Malkin, who in common with everyone on the team has lost family in the Holocaust, has to get him to sign a confession. The trick, as he realises quickly, is to play to his ego which is almost as monstrous as his actions.

These scenes are absolutely fascinating. Isaac is very restrained and focused while Kingsley, who for so long seems to have been phoning it in, gives a performance that reminds you how good an actor he can be. He is by turns witty, cajoling, devious, wheedling, and conciliatory until finally Malkin gets under his skin and he is revealed for what he is.

From the opening credits Weitz gives the film a very old-fashioned look. The story is set in the early sixties and the film looks like it was made not long afterwards but this only adds to the impact of a powerful film with a couple of excellent performances at its centre.