Imperium

Daniel Radcliffe as a FBI agent and an extreme white supremacist, now that was a film I really had to see. Personally, I love undercover stories as they have inbuilt elements of excitement and uncertainty. You're wondering constantly whether the covert operation is going to be a success or a failure.

Even with a shaved head and gangster clothes, Radcliffe lacked menace, fury and vitriol one might expect from a white supremacist. His eyes emanate a childlike innocence that is difficult to overcome even by vulgar behaviour and foul language. He doesn't astound, but I was quite engrossed in his performance. I cared about him and I wanted him to succeed.

I would have loved to see a deeper examination of infiltration strategies than what was in this film. It employs tips from the well – known book: Dale Carnegie's 'How to win friends and influence people', and doesn't go beyond that. By being as simple as it is, it takes away the intrigue of an undercover story.

There were some nail-biting scenes and clever dialogue that held my attention. We do get to delve into the mindsets of several white supremacists. The finale, however, felt very rushed. It came across as very sudden and I questioned its plausibility. It seems that the writers just needed a quick and thrilling end to the story without considering whether it is consistent with what they have developed earlier, both story and character wise.

I admire Radcliffe's tenacity to take on such a role. Even though the film wasn't a profound artwork, he does well in trying to break the seemingly immutable image of him as Harry Potter. Anyone who is used to seeing him as the boy who lived would be pleasantly surprised.

Radcliffe at first might seem like a poor choice to be cast as a skin head/Nazi, but in fact his characteristics make perfect sense in the film. Radcliffe is a young FBI agent that is chosen to infiltrate a local white power movement to prevent a credible domestic terror threat a la the Oklahoma City bombing from the 90s. This is not an action film with brawls and fire fights; this is a drama that tries to honestly show those involved in the white power movement. Overall this film is engaging and engrossing on its own, but also challenges itself by giving these social villains some screen time.

It is a very standard film in terms of plot, this is not a film to watch and expect twists and turns. But it tells a very compelling story through character. Each white power figure we see has their own ideas, goals and as the story progresses it shows us not only about white power, but racism and any type of extremism as well. Sam Trammell, Chris Sullivan and Tracy Letts are all brilliant in pulling us into their lives and succeeding in avoiding the obvious stereotypes that all too easily could happen. The scenes of Edward Norton trashing convenience stores and killing from American History X are left out, these are men with families, family/financial problems, hopes, dreams and its fascinating to see how their sometimes noble goals are corrupted into extreme racism.

The weak point is the ending, and everything has to be knotted up in a 2 hour film. This has the feel of the first 2 episodes of an HBO mini-series. I was left only somewhat satisfied, and genuinely curious about what would happen to each character next – and I guess that is good film making.

Eye opening and well directed. If you are looking for a drama with almost no action, that mostly avoids cliché pitfalls (other than the obvious but well enough done ending) then this is your flick!

I liked how this was set up, Daniel Radcliffe does well here as a young fbi agent who goes undercover into white supremacist America, attempting to foil a terror plot.

It was pretty cookie-cutter stuff in my opinion, how they portrayed the white supremacist. The Dallas Wolf character did well, I like that actor too. But it just seemed...

Cheap? Not sure what other word I can use to describe it. It lacked the depth that an American History X type movie had, that it should've had, or could've had. I didn't like the filming either, how they set up some of the scenes.

It all unraveled pretty predictably, no crazy twists or turns, no real suspense.

This could have been better, but it was still watchable.

Pros: 1. The score brilliantly lathers the film in a constantly tense and nerve-wracking feel. 2. The movie provides a fair enough representation of white power views which serves to heighten Nate Foster's (Daniel Radcliffe) ideological struggles and make them feel more real. 3. Daniel Radcliffe, Toni Collette (Angela Zamparo), Chris Sullivan (Andrew Blackwell), and Seth Numrich (Roy) give brilliant performances. 4. The tension and suspense are built up really well and it keeps the viewer on the edge of their seat for the entire duration.

Cons: 1. In the beginning, Nate Foster strangely claims that Usman (Roger Yawson) did nothing but talk about taking action, even though he brazenly admitted to supplying materials for bomb-making, and he even went to detonate said bomb. 2. The film promulgates the false narrative that white supremacists commit more terror attacks than Muslims. The FBI has explicitly highlighted that it is the other way round. 3. Daniel Radcliffe's American accent is rather patchy in places, and at times sounds a little forced. 4. The fissures between the white power cells is introduced, and then forgotten about. The movie never truly examines these tensions. 5. The third act is completely rushed, as it tries to introduce a veritable bomb threat within the last 25 minutes with very little build up.

'Imperium's' main interest point is the subject matter, it's an important and relevant one, very hard-hitting and portraying it takes a lot of courage with the danger of heavy-handedness or bias. Toni Collette is a fine actress, have liked to loved a lot of her performances, and wanted to see how Daniel Radcliffe would fare in one of his most mature and most challenging roles.

Found 'Imperium' to be a worthwhile and interesting film but also an uneven one where potential is not completely fulfilled. Credit is due for taking on a difficult subject, which is not an easy thing to do, based on the real life experiences of Michael German, a real life FBI-agent, and there are many things to admire. With more focus and tightness 'Imperium' would have been an even better film, with much potential to be a very good even with many good things it is frustrating that the film for me was just decent.

Lets start with the positive. The look of the film is slick, stylish and suitably gritty, a perfect visual approach for the story. The soundtrack has pulsating energy yet is dynamic enough, the use of Brahms is inspired and will delight classic music fans (like me). Despite the director actually being inexperienced making a film, this is actually quite a confident directing job.

The script has tension and tautness, providing a good deal of thought and insight, while the story generally grips and has a suspenseful and bold feel to it, it's coherent too. Not everybody is going to like Daniel Radcliffe's performance, for me it's a strong contender for his best and shows how far he's grown as an actor. Fair play to him challenging himself. The cast generally did well, Tracy Letts being a standout.

Expected much more from Collette though, her character was not very interesting and gave her little to do and Collette comes over as uncharacteristically bland. Her chemistry with Radcliffe has some spark, too far and between, but the tension between Radcliffe and the supremists was far more convincing.

Did think that despite nothing being done disastrously a few elements were unevenly done. The script also can be heavy-handed and could have explored the subject in more depth at times, despite good intentions, and the story has some padding not always needed, a sometimes jumpy structure and plausibility can go out the window. The ending felt rushed and anti-climactic.

Concluding, interesting if uneven. Well done for trying. 6/10 Bethany Cox