The East (2013)

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  TheMovieDiorama

  6 / 10

  The East, much like a puppeteer, controls anarchistic idealisms to convey a preachy environmental message. As time presses on, humanity is typically viewed as the catalyst for the planet's destruction. Whether it be ravaging environments or destroying each other, it's a message that is at the forefront of many films. Some more subtle than others, it's a shame that The East settles for a more preachy method. A young operative is tasked with infiltrating an anarchist activist group where she soon starts to view their radical perspective as idealism as opposed to terrorism. The concept was there. The message was sound. Its purpose was accepted. It wants to be a thriller that makes you think, makes you ponder in self-enlightenment as you question your own actions against the environment. Elevating the dominance of anarchy in a libertarian society, it does make for an enthralling thought bubble. It's just unfortunate that the bubble pops halfway through the film. Batmanglij and Marling choose to focus on the humanity of these characters, the idea of external factors influencing your own perspective of a particular viewpoint. This is where the screenplay shines and really opens up to some intriguing premises. The first act was extremely promising, carefully constructing thrilling tension with hints of the spy sub-genre seeping through. Marling, Skarsgård, Page and Kebbell all portray believable characters that naturally suited the ecologist organisation they were running. We then get to a certain point in the film, the second jam to be precise, and the script shifts from what was a taut thriller into a preachy mess. "You are polluting our water", "corporate greed has corrupted society" or even "spy on us and we'll spy on you". Shoving these clumsy lines of dialogue in my face was not the way to go, and from there Batmanglij loses all sense of direction. The third act gets lost and becomes contrived, concluding in a very anti-climactic way. All the elements were there, and for half of the film they were executed with deftness. It just concedes in on itself and goes so far east that it went passed China.

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