Operation Finale

Director Chris Weitz and writer Matthew Orton solemnly dramatize the Israeli Mossad operation to sneak into Argentina and kidnap Nazi fugitive Adolf Eichmann (Ben Kingsley), one of the masterminds of the Holocaust, taking him to Israel for trial. Unfortunately, the movie lacks the ring of truth because much of it isn’t—for example, making the leader of the mission (Oscar Isaac) the ex-lover of the doctor who drugged Eichmann (Mélanie Laurent) when the real doctor was a man. And that’s the least of it; false details abound, clouding the effect of decent performances (though Kingsley does chew the scenery a bit; Weitz dropped that ball too). The role played by the blind immigrant Lothar Hermann (Peter Strauss) and his daughter (Haley Lu Richardson) is also distorted. All in all, a disservice to history.