Director Andrew Niccol is no stranger to incisive stories at the intersection of technology and ethics. His résumé includes The Truman Show’s screenplay, the modern cult classic Gattaca, and the underrated Lord of War and In Time. Why, then, does Niccol’s latest film, Good Kill, feel relatively torpid? As the first major narrative feature to tackle the subject of drones—sorry, “unmanned aerial vehicles”—one assumes it would be fertile territory for the director. However, the film proves unfortunately stale and inert.
Air Force Major Thomas Egan (Ethan Hawke) is a former fighter pilot who has been consigned to a drone control room outside Las Vegas, owing to shifting military needs and his considerable skill behind the joystick. The major’s latent misgivings about drone warfare surface with the arrival of an outspoken understudy, Airman Vera Suarez (Zoë Kravitz). Egan’s burgeoning objections are numerous: the humiliation of being a “pilot” who never flies; the shaky CIA intelligence behind an increasing proportion of his missions; and the moral uneasiness of assuming every blip on his monitor is an imminent threat to America.
The premise has potential, in that Egan functions as a disillusioned, middle-aged update to Top Gun’s swaggering, adrenaline-addicted flyboys. Sadly, Hawke coasts through an undistinguished performance, but the real problem originates with Niccol’s unfocused screenplay. Good Kill is essentially a character study, yet the film is vague about what troubles Egan the most: the perceived emasculation of being wedged behind a desk, or the remote-control obliteration of human beings from 7,000 miles away. Instead of clarifying the story, Niccol throws in hackneyed elements: a drinking problem, an ambiguous romantic temptation, and a stereotypically unsatisfied, badgering wife (January Jones) holed up in a desert McMansion. This results in a bland, functional film that feels like a wasted opportunity.
Good Kill opens Friday, May 22 at the Hi-Pointe Theatre (1005 McCausland, 314-995-6273).
