Review: Camp X-Ray
"They will test you and they will best you," Corporal Ransdell (Lane Garrison) tells the latest batch of recruits as he gives them the standard orientation drill. "Do not let them get inside your head." "They" are the detainees at Guantanamo Bay and the recruits are assigned not to make sure they don't escape but rather to ensure the detainees remain alive.
For one of the newbies, small-town Floridian Amy Cole (Kristen Stewart), this experience is a chance for her to do something important, whatever that may be. As one of the few female recruits, she's determined to prove herself - first by volunteering to be part of the four-member Initial Reaction Force team that restrains one of the violent detainees, and then by trading barbs with her fellow recruits and her direct superior Ransdell. She proudly bears a bruised and bloodied lip at the end of day one.
The ensuing days and weeks are far less exciting than that first day. Cole patrols the cell block, peering through the glass windows of each single-occupancy cell door as part of the suicide watch every three minutes, sometimes feeling as confined as the detainees. On a practical level, both guards and detainees share the crushing boredom of their daily lives so it seems a reasonable question when Ali (Peyman Moaadi), more commonly known as detainee 471, asks why they can't talk to one another.
A long-term detainee, Ali attempts to puncture Cole's impassivity, nicknaming her "Blondie," ranting about not getting the seventh Harry Potter book he was promised, extolling the first half of the Bible for containing a lot of armies and magic, and then finally getting her attention when he throws a fecal cocktail at her. Initially angry and humiliated, she finds herself becoming more empathetic with detainee 471, believing his punishment of being shipped from cell to cell every two hours to prevent sleep a bit harsh and unnecessary. She learns of his history of aggressions, both minor and major, his frequent bouts in isolation, the multiple visits by the psychiatrist.
The tricky friendship between the two is well-played by Moaadi and Stewart. Best known for his work in the Oscar-winning Iranian drama A Separation, Moaadi excels as the incarcerated man who refuses to follow the rules set by people he feels have no right to give him these restrictions. Proud, educated, bitter, and frail, he delivers a commendable, multi-layered characterisation.
The Twilight films have been a blessing and a curse for Stewart, who saw her profile raised but her talent questioned. One forgets that she was a highly promising performer pre-Twilight, already praised for her appearances in Panic Room, Into the Wild and Adventureland. Her other films during the Twilight era - The Runaways and Welcome to the Rileys - featured fine but overlooked portrayals. Now that the Twilight series is done and she's proven her worth in Clouds of Sils Maria and Still Alice, perhaps her talent can be reappraised and acknowledged without question. Her Cole is a fiercely conflicted young woman, full of moral misgivings and growing disillusionment. Her scenes with Moaadi are the heart of a sometimes overlong but always riveting film about human connection.
Camp X-Ray
Directed by: Peter Sattler
Written by: Peter Sattler
Starring: Kristen Stewart, Peyman Moaadi, Lane Garrison, John Carroll Lynch, Julia Duffy
