Movie Review: "The East"

"The East": B-.  The East raises the question of how emotionally attached, if at all, an undercover infiltrator could become to the brotherhood of a revolutionary cell before questioning her role.  Brit Marling is Sara Moss, an attractive young woman who is hired by Hiller Brood, a security company run by Sharon (Patricia Clarkson) and specializing in high tech corporate security.  Hiller Brood's clients tend to be companies which engage in activities which are unsafe, unhealthy, borderline immoral, and yet legal: oil companies, pharmaceuticals, lumber, energy, mining, etc.  The stage is set when the CEO one of those nefarious businesses, responsible for massive pollution from its oil drilling and shipping operations, becomes the target of a small group of anarchists called The East.  That group, also known in some circles as a cell, covertly gives its targets a taste of their own medicine, such as sneaking into the CEO's house and dumping massive quantities of oil into the ventilation system.

After going to work for Hiller Brood, Sara's first challenge is to find The East's members and convince them that she can be trusted as a colleague within their commune.  Some of the first act scenes, in which she rides the rails with them like a hobo and gashes herself so that her new acquaintances might take her into their compound for treatment, are tense and exciting.  The members of the cell reside deep in the forest in an old house.  They look and act like woodland hippies living in a family atmosphere.  One moment they are playing spin the bottle or having a bon fire.  A day later they are planning to poison the upper crust guests of a pharmaceutical executive's private party.

Following the oil spill caper, The East has big plans for more "jams," as they call them.  As Sara learns more about their motives and becomes more attached to some of its members, she internally struggles with her own values.  The East is led by Benji (Alexander Skarsgard), a man who can look foreboding one minute and normal the next.  Is Sara falling for Benji, or is she still in-character as her employment requires?  She periodically checks in with her boss, Sharon, via clandestine phone calls, and inconspicuously attempts to soften the blow of The East's harsh measures against their victims.  Over time she realizes that her employer is not in business to save humanity from a small group of terrorists.  Rather, Hiller Brood's main objective is to make money, just like The East's corporate targets.  She wonders who the real enemy is.

The level of satisfaction you will get from watching this film will partially be dependent on your tolerance for missing details.  For example, the cell is comprised of only a half dozen members, yet they are able to get their hands on whatever materials they need to pull off their jams.  There is very little effort by the police or the FBI to find the terrorists, who are free to come and go to and from their rustic hideaway as they please.  The brief scenes involving the estranged father of East participant Izzy (Juno star Ellen Page) are almost preposterous.  Except for a couple of short scenes, I never felt as though Sara was in any grave danger.  The one East member who puts a knife to her throat inexplicably disappears from the story shortly thereafter. Still, this movie is, for the most part, engrossing.  One thing I took away is the probable truism that not every anarchist or rebel with a cause has to look like Charles Manson or Squeaky Fromme.

Apparently The East cell members thought more highly of Sara's acting talents than I did of Marling's.  If I were a member of The East, I would be a lot more suspicious of the young blonde newbie who looks like she belongs behind a desk in a bank, especially since if I were ever caught, the punishment for my crimes would either be death or life imprisonment.  It's impossible for me to know what percentage of my negative view of Marling's work should be attributed to director Sal Batmanglij, but frequent long poses with a dull blank stare does not a great actress make.