OPERATION FINALE is a Story of Justice

Jeri Jacquin

On Bluray/DVD and Digital from Universal Pictures Home Entertainment and director Chris Weitz based on a true story tells us about the historic OPERATION FINALE.

Peter Malkin (Oscar Isaac) is part of an Israeli secret agents who have one goal – to track down and arrest SS officer Adolf Eichmann (Ben Kingsley). They want him as he is known as the mastermind of what is known as the ‘Final Solution’ and the Jewish people in concentration camps during World War II.

In Argentina, Sylvia Hermann (Haley Lu Richardson) is a young woman who begins dating a boy named Klaus Eichmann (Joe Alwyn). Klaus tells her family that he has been raised by his uncle Ricardo after his father died. It is Sylvia’s father who believes that he is onto something. When a photograph is relayed back to Israel of Uncle Ricardo, Malkin is brief on the operation to bring Eichmann back to Israel to stand trail for war crimes.

Along with Hanna Elian (Melanie Laurent), Isser Harel (Lior Raz), Rafi Eitan (Nick Kroll) and others, the group come to Buenos Aires, Argentina searching. They set up and prepare the best way to capture Eichmann and get him to an airplane covertly. Malkin has a lot to prove as they thought they were capturing the same man in Austria and it went wrong.

Capturing Eichmann is one thing, having him at a safe house until he can be extracted is another. Son Klaus and wife Vera (Greta Scacchi) are doing everything possible to find Eichmann. That means the clock is ticking to get a confession from Eichmann about who he really is.

Malkin finds himself talking with Eichmann when it is his turn to watch the prisoner. Everyone else in the safe house finds taking care of the former SS officer distasteful so Malkin takes their shifts as he wants to know why and believes he can convince Eichmann to sign the document.

Klaus has brought down every person to bear in order to find his father - even throwing both Sylvia and her father in jail. Torturing the young girl doesn’t seem to faze Klaus enough to stop it but what she tells him put them all on the hunt for the safe house. Every move is becoming ever more dangerous with lives at stake.

Time is running out and the race is on to get Eichmann to the plane and to stand trial for his war crimes.

Golden Globe winner Isaac as Malkin is a man with memories that make it difficult at times to do what needs doing. When an earlier mission to capture Eichmann turned chaotic, it is clear that Malkin wants to make sure the mission goes according to a well laid plan. When Eichmann is their prisoner at the safe house, Isaac’s character takes it upon himself to get to ‘know’ the man with the goal of a confession. That means telling Eichmann very personal things in the hope that the former SS officer will trust in him. There comes a moment of cat and mouse that I thought was going to go horribly wrong. Isaac is proving time and time again to be such a stellar actor and the roles he chooses are smart and poignant, OPERATION FINALE is one such role.

Academy Award winner Kingsley as Eichmann is absolutely stunning and I say that because I have been an admirer of this actor long before he was Sir Ben Kingsley. He has the unique ability to be any character he chooses, meaning good characters and not-so-nice characters yet I am riveted to see where he takes the story. This film is no exception to that rule as Kingsley starts out in character defiance but inevitably realizes the situation he is in portraying it masterfully.

Laurent as Hanna agrees to be the medic for the mission but refuses to give Eichmann an ounce of compassion. This is the second film dealing with Nazi’s as she was the French cinema owner Shoshana in INGLORIOUS BASTERDS in 2009. Kroll as Eitan is goal oriented to get the mission done swiftly and needs the confession to make that happen.

Other cast include Michael Aronov as Zvi Aharoni, Ohad Knoller as Ephraim Ilani, Greg Hill as Moshe Tabor, Torben Liebrecht as Yaakov Gat, Michael Hernandez as Dani Shalom, Pepe Rapazote as Carlos Fuldner, Haley Lu Richardson as Sylvia Hermann and Peter Strauss as Lothar Hermann.

Universal Studios Home Entertainment has just added an amazing film to their library and making it available for us all to experience and re-experience in our own home theatres. There are films of every genre available from scary to drama to family films. For more of what they have to offer please visit www.uphe.com.

The Bonus Features on Bluray and DVD include Inside the Operations: Cast, filmmakers and crew discuss working together, filing in Buenos Aires, and their collective approach to telling such a historically significant story and Feature Commentary with Director Chris Weitz.

OPERATION FINALE is an intense thriller in a story that absolutely needed to be told. The film is stellar and what makes it so is the cast who take on their characters with depth and intensity. As the story unfolds it becomes clear that not only is there much to fear if they get caught but the fact that Eichmann wasn’t the only Nazi in Buenos Aires!

The scenes between Isaacs and Kingsley are pure brilliance in their exchanges and I couldn’t take my eyes of the screen. Both of these actors have brought so much to the screen through the years and OPERATION FINALE is going to be a film that sticks with me for a very long time.

In the end – after World War II the mission for justice began!