Imperium – a review

A naive young FBI agent goes undercover with a group of white supremacists to investigate a potential terror attack involving a missing radioactive substance.

That’s about it! I wanted to write an additional line that spoke about ‘his life getting more and more in danger as he goes deeper inside the rabbit hole’, but that’s not really what this movie focuses on. It’s not The departed or Donnie Brasco in which the hero is on constant pins and needles of being found out.

Imperium takes a more sobering approach of looking at things from a more investigative angle. That doesn’t mean the trope of ‘almost being discovered a fraud’ isn’t in there. It just that it’s more a whodunit –slash- expose about the neo-Nazi subculture than an all out thriller. And, I’m a bit on two minds about it. I applaud the fact that this isn’t a complete rehash of other films. But on the other hand I do miss it a bit. Now, I wouldn’t put it down to sloppy writing or bad acting because the movie is solid in that department. I think it is me expecting more of the same.

A big plus for the movie has to do with the tempo of the plot. Just when I said to myself ‘Now it’s about time to get the ball rolling on that possible terror plot’ the story focused on that part. When I thought it was about time to unmask the villain –the story obliged me. In a sense the plotting never really felt overstretched. Imperium is a tight story from A to Z. A breath of fresh air in the current landscape of overtly bloated movies that clock well over 150 minutes.

One big nitpick I had: I really wanted some kind of resolution for the African American liquor seller (what were they thinking getting a Washington resident going undercover in the Washington area?). But, since we can all assume some positive ending to that conflict it wasn’t needed for the onscreen story.

The white supremacists.

As I wrote in a previous review; I have a healthy interest in neo-Nazism. I find those people fascinating in how they work and how they think. And I always warn people of the dangers of the spokespersons. Like any comic book villain you’ve got the evil army of foot soldiers who are dumb and easily defeated. And then you’ve got the main villain who is quite smart. That’s the one you have to look out for because that is the guy who is going to get away with it all.

Imperium takes its time for the viewer to get acquainted with all the types of this movement: the skin-heads, the neo-Nazis, the Klan members and the hate-conspiracy-broadcasters; and each subgroup get more than enough time to leave an impression. So, in that sense, Imperium is quite an interesting low-level lesson about the current climate and culture of these hate-groups.

But, I must stress that the movie does tent to stereotype several groups pretty harshly. Yes skinheads are overtly dumb, but not all of them and I consider it unwise to portray them as petty punks instead of the danger that (I believe) they truly are.

One quick note about the Nazi-slur and the memorabilia (swastika birthday decorations?). These are brilliantly found. There are hardly any scenes in the undercover parts of the story where the talk or the surroundings makes you uneasy. Here you are at a lovely barbeque and the lady of the house has made cupcakes with a big swastika on top for decoration.

The acting

Toni Collette is great as always. Watch this movie and Going down right after and you’ll see what I mean. She must’ve been having a blast in this part. It is just a bit of a missed opportunity that she never gets in any real danger. But that’s fine – that’s me having that dual feeling I mentioned above.

Then there’s Daniel Radcliffe who is, as always, very capable of his job in yet another interesting acting choice. However, his character never truly gets ‘drawn to the darkside’ as I imagined before watching this movie. His character stays good throughout the movie. I would have preferred his character to become a bit unbalanced halfway through. That those horrible people he hangs out with might influence him a bit. But it never happens. Maybe a missed opportunity.

But apart from his acting, I must say, Daniel Radcliffe physique works against him. He’s quite a short guy. So he’s nowhere as impressive as a dangerous white supremacist. One scene almost comically highlights it when he befriends a young teenager who (because of his teasing earlier in life) joined the white supremacists. They are talking and the kid is a good few feet larger than Radcliffe. It’s a bit difficult to believe any paternal compassion if the one you are compassionate about rises above you like a tower.

The same goes with the big evil Nazi’s (a great part by Chris Sullivan). Him next to Radcliffe? There is no way they are on equal footing –but then again, in that case it works to crank up the tension.

The directing.

The directing is solid. I especially loved the fast montages about the white supremacists hatred. It might be a bit like preaching to the choir for me, but that’s fine. Nothing wrong with reminding me how evil those people are.

Conclusion

So, to summarize, Imperium is a well made thriller that actually evades several tropes of the undercover cop genre. I’m not sure whether that’s a good thing because with it it takes away some of the thriller-elements. I do know, however, that Imperium is an interesting tale about the dangers of white supremacists that takes its time for the audience to get-to-know these people (something I felt was missing in the green room). A bit forgettable movie perhaps – but interesting nevertheless.